‘‘We’re the front line of democracy’: the MPs’ staff facing threats and abuse’

Last month, the Australian MP Helen Haines was left critically injured after being deliberately struck by a car outside her office. The incident has renewed scrutiny of the threats facing politicians, but in Britain, as elsewhere, the debate over their safety often overlooks the thousands of staff who work alongside them.

Jo Cox and David Amess were both killed in their constituencies, while former MP Ann Widdecombe was murdered in July. For the staff who welcome constituents into offices, manage abusive correspondence, and accompany MPs at public events, the risks are not confined to those in elected office. Many say they are left absorbing threats directed at their employers, often without the same sense of protection.

Lisa Gillmore, the GMB’s MPs’ and peers’ staff branch president, emphasised how Haines was run over outside “the kind of office where staff across the UK welcome constituents through the door every day”. “Those staff are the front line of our democracy, and too often its most exposed part”.

For the staffers I spoke to, much of the abuse aimed at MPs reaches them first and is a routine part of the job. In this year’s annual survey of MPs’ staff, conducted by Parliament’s Wellness Working Group, 78 percent of constituency staff reported receiving threatening calls or communications from the public. Lauren Davison, chief of staff to Alison Gardner, says that if an MP gets abuse online “nine out of ten times it’ll be a staff member who sees that tweet or opens that email and deals with angry constituents Monday to Friday”. Josh Charters, a communications officer for an MP, describes the “hatred and vitriol” aimed at their MP as constant, though much of it never reaches her. “She doesn’t see most of that because I don’t let her look at it”, he says. Shielding an MP from abuse comes at a cost to those managing it, Josh says the experience has had a “massive mental health impact”, leaving him second guessing everything he does at work because he doesn’t want to trigger the abuse.

Despite this, the protection on offer appears to be primarily built around MPs. Siôn Davies, a senior parliamentary assistant, says his office has been told explicitly that the job of the parliamentary security is to protect the MP, which leaves him wondering what that means for everyone else. Respondents to the MP staff survey echo being told that security “are only there to protect the MP, not staff members”.

A second divide appears to run between staff based in Westminster and those in the constituency. Siôn says the layer of security on the parliamentary estate “provides reassurance” in a way that isn’t there in the constituency. Hollie Wickens, who has worked for MPs for ten years, now works remotely or on the parliamentary estate and says she feels safe as a result. But she’s clear that there is “definitely more security for estate staff than constituency staff”. In the MP staff survey, two-thirds of constituency staff said they don’t receive the same level of service as their colleagues in Westminster.

This disparity raises a wider question about responsibility for staff safety. Because MPs employ their staff directly, rather than Parliament employing them a single workforce, there are effectively 650 separate employers in Parliament. Gillmore argues that this fragments responsibility for protecting staff across the parliamentary estate and constituencies. “No one is exclusively responsible for the safety of MPs’ staff across Parliament as a whole”.

The GMB’s One Parliament, One Employer campaign seeks to address this problem. It is backed by more than 100 MPs, with well over half of those sitting on Labour’s benches. With Labour in government, the party is well placed to consider how responsibility for staff employment and safety could be better coordinated.

The risks are also not experienced equally by everyone working in an MP’s office. Several staffers say the risk falls hardest on women in those offices. Lauren describes a man who walks past the office most days to spit and yell, who once spat about a foot in front of her and a female colleague. Josh says offices staffed mainly by women appear to be targeted more because “people feel they can intimidate them more”. “It’s not normal”, Lauren says, “you wouldn’t accept it in any normal workplace”.

Yet for most of the people I spoke to, abuse has become an accepted part of working life. “After a few years you do just become used to it, it’s part of your job”, says Siôn. Hollie says the abuse “becomes normalised in a really unhealthy way…you come to expect it”. Mark Lewis, a former senior caseworker, says the stories staff hear “stay with you”, and that, for what caseworkers are paid, the job is “just not worth it”. Despite this, mental health support isn’t offered automatically after an incident, and staff are left to refer themselves. The MP staff survey found that half of MPs’ staff now meet the threshold for psychological distress, the highest level the survey has ever recorded.

There are signs of progress. Josh says his local police now call every week to check in, and staff names have been removed from the published register of staff interests, a change Lauren describes as “really positive”. A Met Police spokesperson said: “We fully recognise the impact that threats, abuse and harassment can have, not only on Members of Parliament, but also on the staff who support them and the families around them”, adding that Operation Bridger – the national policing operation that coordinates protective security – “does not stop at MPs themselves”. Every police force now has a Force Elected Official Advisor, introduced last year to strengthen Bridger locally, and the Met says it has stepped up outreach to MPs’ offices to encourage them to report offences.

A House of Commons spokesperson said MPs’ staff are “a valued and integral part of the parliamentary community”, and that the House continues “to strengthen the guidance, induction, and specialist support available to them”. “We recognise the challenges Members’ staff face and take them seriously”, they added. The spokesperson pointed to a dedicated Wellbeing Adviser for MPs and their staff, and said the Parliamentary Security Department shares advice, training, and practical support for staffers. Teams from the House also hold roadshows around the UK “to bring House services closer to staff based in constituencies”.

But the existence of these measures does not mean staff feel safe. For some, that constant background of risk is part of why they’ve thought about leaving the job altogether. One staffer described it as something that’s “always been a little bit under the surface”, an awareness that, as they put it, “the concern could be anything”. As a result, they said they’re constantly left with the same question in the back of their mind: “Do I still want to do this?” They admitted to “praying for a safe civil service” job to turn up.

None of the staffers I spoke to described what they’d been through as especially exceptional, but for some the danger is made more immediate by their proximity to political violence. One staffer I spoke to is friends with a member of Jo Cox’s team who was in the room when she was killed. For them, the possibility of a similar attack isn’t abstract. “God willing that won’t be me”, they say, “but Jesus, it could be – that’s always in the back of my mind”.