Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, has received over 600 rape threats in a single night and countless death threats, highlighting the escalating security crisis facing British politicians. In 2019, a man forced his way into her office, and a white supremacist sent her a picture of her murdered colleague Jo Cox with a message implying she would be next. “This is not academic to me; it is something I face every day,” she said.
The issue has come into sharp focus after counter-terrorism police took over the investigation into Ann Widdecombe’s death. Nigel Farage revealed he receives more than 300 threats a month, while Reform UK has recorded 1,577 threats against him since February. The Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin told the Commons that MPs were “more likely to meet a violent death than a member of His Majesty’s armed forces or a member of the British police forces”.
Statistics show that MPs reported 4,064 crimes to the Metropolitan police’s parliamentary liaison team between 2019 and 2025, with alleged offences rising from 364 in 2019 to 976 in 2025. Death threats increased from 31 in 2024 to 50 in 2025. Female MPs and those from minority backgrounds are disproportionately targeted. In the last decade, two MPs have been murdered: Jo Cox in 2016 and Sir David Amess in 2021.
The threats are deterring people from entering politics. Treasury chief secretary Lucy Rigby said the abuse had “made her think twice” about standing for parliament. Former victims’ minister Alex Davies-Jones said threats were a weekly occurrence for most MPs, and they have “definitely got more severe”. One male MP said he now avoids pubs after being aggressively cornered over Gaza.
Measures to protect MPs include a new national democracy protection unit, armed police patrols in Westminster, and individual security under Operation Bridger, which provides panic buttons and bomb-proof letterboxes. The speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, has described MP safety as an “obsession”.
