Home Secretary confirms top-level meeting to discuss election candidate threats

The alarming rise in candidate intimidation during the UK’s general election campaign by pro-Palestine activists will be addressed next week at a meeting of ministers and civil servants, the Home Secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper said the defending democracy taskforce, which was set up by the previous Conservative government and brings together ministers and experts, would meet next week to “make sure public safety, security and standards in our democracy can be upheld”.

The Home Office will be “following up” on complaints submitted by individual MPs and candidates who have reported facing threats and intimidation during the recent general election campaign, Downing Street has confirmed.

The government’s adviser on political violence also wrote to home secretary last wweekend warning about the “aggressive confrontation and intimidation” that he said was “created by aggressive pro-Palestine activists”.

It has now emerged that police in Leicester were looking into leaflets delivered in the city which linked ex-MP Ashworth to false slurs about his stance on a ceasefire in Gaza, and other which suggested he had failed to stand up to the killing of children by Israel.

The Home Secretary said on Monday: “The recent general election campaign demonstrated some of the great strengths of our democratic traditions, including a smooth and peaceful transition of power from one party to another, but during this campaign we also saw an alarming rise in intimidation, harassment and abuse towards candidates, campaigners and volunteers from all parties, which simply cannot be tolerated.

“Some of those incidents are now being investigated by police. The disgraceful scenes we saw in some areas during this election campaign must not be repeated.”

The Home Office will carry out a rapid review of the election to gauge the levels of harassment faced by candidates, with police forces across the country investigating a number of cases, it is understood.

Lord Walney, formerly ex-Labour MP John Woodcock, warned in his letter:”We have seen the growth in the UK of US-style politics of aggressive confrontation and intimidation which is unfortunately, exactly the toxic environment that could lead to another assassination attempt on a UK politician, of which we have already tragically seen a number in recent years.”

Asked about concerns to the safety of UK politicians, following the assasination attempt on US President Donald Trump last weekend, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:”Clearly it’s unacceptable for anyone, including political representatives, to face any sort of intimidation.

“Abuse and violence has no place in our society, as the PM said in his call with President Trump. We have extensive and comprehensive security measures available.

“The Home Office will be following up with individual MPs and candidates who have made reports, particularly during the general election campaign.”

Many political candidates and their staff suffered threats and intimidation in the run-up to the election.

Muslim Labour MPs, including Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Rushanara Ali, were among those to be targeted with claims they were supporters of the “Zionist” Labour Party.

Jonathan Ashworth, who lost the Leicester South seat to a pro-Palestine campaigner Shockat Adam,  and who was revealed by Jewish News to be the brother of Ismail Patel, founder of the Islamist Friends of Al Aqsa group, has been particularly outspoken about the intimidation he faced.

In the run-up to the election Ashworth had received a letter from a group of local Muslim leaders asking for an explanation as to why he had shared a tweet by Starmer expressing solidarity with Israel immediately after Hamas’s atrocities on October 7.

During the campaign, leaflets were distributed branding Ashworth a “ceasefire abstainer” and a “genocide” supporter. 

On polling day, he took his ten-year-old daughter with him to canvas, only to be confronted by a constituent who said “everyone despises you”.

Woodcock said he believed intimidation was increasingly being used as “a core electoral strategy to try to either get candidates defeated or bully candidates into submission”.

He added that there was a particular pattern of abuse “created by aggressive pro-Palestine activists”.

The peer called on Cooper and the security minister, Dan Jarvis, to commission a short inquiry to establish whether groups in different constituencies were working together before the 4 July general election.

In his letter he said it should document what he termed the “dark underbelly” of abuse.

In another interview last weekend Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: “If there is something that keeps me awake at night, it is the safety of MPs.”