Spending on security increased hugely in the wake of Jo Cox’s murder – but the problem is growing
The constituent who “sidled up” to an MP to describe his make of car and where he had been driving it over the weekend… Another who warned an MP that they knew which school her children attended… An MP forced to act as a security guard at his own constituency surgery, ejecting someone who had become aggressive and abusive… Family members confronted … Staff regularly abused.
As MPs contacted each other to discuss the horrific news that another of their number had been killed while fulfilling their basic duties, the list of their own grim experiences flowed immediately and at length. “Talking with colleagues this afternoon, there isn’t one of us, not one of us, who couldn’t give you a list of alarming examples of things that have been said or done in a constituency surgery,” said a cabinet minister.
