This article was written for the Sunday Telegraph on 25th February 2024.
In 2021, Sir David Amess was stabbed to death by an Islamist extremist who targeted him because of the way he’d voted in the Commons on the war in Syria. I was elected as Sir David’s successor two years ago this month, and not a day goes by when I don’t think of how he was brutally murdered simply for doing his job.
Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, recently announced that he was stepping down, fed up and frightened due to Islamist extremists regularly targeting him and his loved ones. His office was firebombed. Chillingly, Mike narrowly missed falling victim to Sir David’s killer, who went looking for him first.
A lot of lovely sentiments have been expressed about both of these events, but has enough actually been done to tackle the fact that many, many Islamist fundamentalists with bad intentions live and walk among us? No, it hasn’t.
We seem afraid. Afraid to be seen as racist, or Islamophobic, even when we simply seek to save lives by speaking the truth. On Wednesday, in the House of Commons, the scale of this problem became crystal clear. If people at home felt bemused and upset by what happened, then they weren’t alone. I, too, could not believe what I was seeing.
I was made aware that the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, had met the Speaker to “urge” him to allow a vote on the Labour amendment to the SNP motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Starmer apparently did this so that Labour MPs could “safely” vote in a way that wouldn’t “upset” their constituents and would allegedly “spare” them and their families from being threatened and intimidated.
How Starmer went about “urging” the Speaker is unknown. But the circumstances were extraordinary enough to prompt a letter from the Clerk of the House, Tom Goldsmith, to the Speaker pointing out that “long-established conventions are not being followed in this case”.
At best this was a subversion of democracy that undermined the integrity of Parliament. At worst it was naked appeasement and a deliberate act of bowing to the mob who were protesting loudly outside and projecting anti-Semitic slogans onto Big Ben. I would like to see a law passed immediately to ban any unauthorised projections onto the buildings of Parliament.
But how has this mob, which includes Islamists and far-Left activists, become so powerful that its actions made MPs afraid to vote with their consciences? Why was the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, so willing to compromise himself and his reputation like this?
The events of Wednesday have certainly changed how I feel about doing my job as an MP. My office overlooks Whitehall and, on Wednesday, I could hear and see the protesters as they marched and grew in number and volume. I’d spoken in the SNP’s ceasefire debate and had stated my opinion that we cannot possibly vote for a ceasefire and leave the remaining Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas. Seeing the baying mob outside made me feel wary of leaving the safety of my office.
I’d also come up against such attempted intimidation in my constituency. Shortly after the Hamas attacks of October 7, I went to my local synagogue to express my sympathies to the Southend Jewish community and to ask if I could do anything to help. I was welcomed warmly and my offer of help was appreciated.
I also have a mosque in my constituency, so a few weeks later I reached out to see if I could do anything to support them, especially in terms of organising humanitarian help for the innocent people of Gaza. I was invited inside and offered a seat before being surrounded by a number of men and one woman. She immediately started shouting, jabbing her finger in my face and demanding to know “how many babies had to die to satisfy my blood lust”. My aide, who was with me, suggested that we leave.
A few days later, there was an anti-war in the Middle East march in Southend with dolls covered in fake blood scattered on the pavement, under people holding placards saying “Anna Firth kills babies”. I was horrified. A police officer stood by and watched but did nothing. When I saw Met Commander Sir Mark Rowley a week later in the Commons, he agreed that this was intimidation and explained that the police do have powers to intervene and stop people inciting violence like this. So why didn’t they?
If this is happening in a fairly centre-Right southern city like Southend, I can only imagine what some of my other Parliamentary colleagues must be going through. Even though I disagree with what Starmer and Sir Lindsay did, I understand the Speaker’s wish to try to protect MPs from threats and violence and I have accepted Sir Lindsay’s apology. But protecting MPs is a job for the police.
I was always taught to stand up to bullies, not to give in, and never, ever to let myself be intimidated. It’s hard, though, when the threat is real and nobody wants to admit where it’s coming from. If you can’t name it, you can’t protect yourself from it.
I agree with my friend and colleague Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, who described Wednesday as a “dark day in our democracy”. I also support his call to stop Islamist extremists from intimidating MPs. Home Secretary James Cleverly is spot on when he says that the only thing MPs should fear is the ballot box. As we saw with my predecessor Sir David, it’s only a short hop from violent rhetoric to deadly action.
Anna Firth is the Conservative MP for Southend West
