We all have a duty to keep our MPs safe
Ican picture Sir David Amess arriving at his constituency surgery on Friday. He will have greeted staff and constituents with a smile and a genuine enquiry about how they were. Then he’ll have headed into the church hall to do what was closest to his heart – listening to and representing the people of Southend West.
No doubt he was already thinking about how he might shoehorn a mention of Southend’s bid for city status into the question he was due to ask when Parliament sits again. This would have been greeted with indulgent groans and laughs by his fellow MPs, who recognised his utter commitment to his constituency and who, in many cases, would have been on the receiving end of his kindness, decency and good humour.
His killing is, first and foremost, a tragedy for his wife, his children and all those who knew and loved him. But it is also an attack on our system of democracy and particularly the role of constituency MPs.
My friend, Jo Cox, was also murdered in her constituency while carrying out day-to-day contact with the people she grew up with. In her maiden speech, she spoke with warmth about the different communities in Batley and Spen and said that they had “more in common than that which divides them”. Jo’s values and life inform the work of The Jo Cox Foundation that I chair. We are devastated by Sir David’s killing, and send our love and sympathy to his family, staff and colleagues.
We are also deeply troubled that just five years after Jo’s death, another MP has been killed while carrying out their job. We have become increasingly concerned about the toxic nature of our public life – all elected representatives deserve to be safe and to be treated with respect. Violence and abuse against them is utterly unacceptable.
This is why we need a wider response than just upping the security around our MPs. It is right for the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Home Secretary to review this, and I hope that we can find new ways to keep MPs physically safe while enabling them to keep that vital contact with their constituents.
Democracy won’t work unless people are willing to stand for election, and it’s understandable that people are reluctant to do that if they believe that they will place themselves and their families at risk. That’s also why we all have a responsibility to keep our politicians safe and free from abuse and intimidation. The dehumanising of our elected politicians; the continuous questioning of their motives; the shouted abuse; the vicious social media posts – these all contribute to the toxic political environment, and we are responsible for them.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t disagree or argue passionately or call out hypocrisy or even laugh at politicians, but it does mean that we should challenge abuse and intimidation where we see it. It means politicians themselves should resist abusing each other and should stand up for those of different political colours when they’re facing it. It means social media companies shouldn’t allow anonymous people and obvious bots to undermine our democratic life, and it means journalists should challenge lazy stereotypes about politicians.
At The Jo Cox Foundation, we’ll be redoubling our efforts to tackle this problem. We are committed to working towards a future where no politician is subject to violence or intimidation.
I was intensely moved to discover that the last tweet that Sir David liked on Friday was from Iain Dale, with whom I host our For The Many podcast, in which he posted a photograph of the two of us. Iain and I come from completely different political positions, and yet we’ve become friends, able to discuss our differences with respect (as well as a helping of smutty humour).
We all have more in common than that which divides us – most importantly our humanity. The best way to honour Sir David Amess and Jo Cox is to remember this – and to act on it.