Social media has made MPs more accessible than ever before. Whilst I am on social media and enjoy the occasional interaction with residents and answering their questions on an informal forum, it does come with its downsides.
The Minister for Justice, Mike Freer MP, spoke in ‘The News Agents’ podcast about the difficulties of being an MP, for the MP’s family and the wellbeing of dealing with daily threats and hateful comments. Mike Freer’s case was particularly alarming as fire broke out in his constituency office in Finchley and Golders Green, where, in the end, two people were charged with arson. As a result of this, on top of many other incidents, a great MP, such as Mike, has decided to step down at the next election.
Mike pointed out how even though some of these threats are publicised, they are too often pushed under the carpet. Many will say that it is part of the job when you sign up to become an MP, however, this is not justified, and no one should ever feel threatened because of the work that they do. I am concerned that we do not take these threats seriously enough, especially when we know full well that they can be carried out, with the tragic cases of Sir David Amess and Jo Cox being stark reminders.
With the arson attack being covered in the news, North Devon residents have written to me about not allowing extremism to dictate our politics. The Minister mentioned in the podcast, how the threats and the actions themselves have a deep rooted effect on family but also on the team who often deal with casework and are subjected to this firsthand. Whilst North Devon is quite a pleasant rural area, and you might think this is not something that happens here, I do unfortunately, often receive threats on my social media and inbox. I have, sadly, had to report residents to the police and only this month asked for the police to escort my team out of the office due to a protest outside. However peaceful, the same organisation has not been peaceful elsewhere, in similar circumstances, and I have a duty of care to the team that work for me, and also yourselves, as I am your MP.
When schools and students travel to Westminster, I endeavour to do a Q&A so they can add a name to the face of their local MP. A question I receive in most sessions is, ‘what is the hardest part of being an MP?’ I am only human, and wish we could all indulge in polite politics, but I am honest with our youngsters and what I find most difficult as an MP is getting hateful comments and threats because of misinformation or a twisting of the facts put out by the opposition or activist groups.
It can sometimes be hard when you face such horrible comments about something completely baseless, which is only presented to make politics more divisive. Misinformation on water quality, for example, can be harmful in that it disrupts people’s lives when they would like to visit beaches and it hurts the tourism economy in North Devon. There is no excuse when presenting information to the public; the information must be factual and accurate. In any other line of work, inaccurate information would not be acceptable, but the threats and abuse, and often complete lack of detailed data and information are too often tolerated in politics. In North Devon, we may not often see protests about current issues, but the poisonous misinformation that spreads online can do a great deal of damage.
As MPs we are advised to be very careful with our surgeries, to not publicly advertise the time and location of where they will be. Likewise, when attending public events, we are advised to notify the police in advance. It shouldn’t be like this but having been around when colleagues on both sides of the House were murdered, threatened, the victims of arson, wear stab vests at public events and are forced to have security at surgeries, it is wiser to adhere to the advice given by our security services. I was a teenager at home when my neighbour, Ian Gow, then Eastbourne MP, was murdered by the IRA by a car bomb, under his son’s car at their family home. He had refused security advice to check under the car before driving.
Despite all this, I try to go out and meet as many of you as I can because that is the job I wanted when I stood for election, and I also see the positive emails and messages, which makes me hopeful that the era of polite politics may not be over after all. So, thank you very much for all the positive emails that have been sent as I continue to be North Devon’s voice in Westminster.
