I chose to be an MP but now my child has to have a panic button in their bedroom

There are some encounters with members of the public you remember vividly as a politician. 

Personally, I’ll never forget the man who stopped me on Whitehall to insist that I knew nothing about the harassment of women. 

He offered this opinion as he shouted into my face and told me none of the women in his family had ever been harassed or abused by anyone. 

I’m very aware that it can come across as monumentally self-pitying when MPs complain about being targeted by protestors.  

But what worries me is an underlying current of intimidation and harassment that could start to threaten not only individuals, but the very fabric of our democracy.  

Let’s not forget, in the last eight years, not only have we seen two wonderful MPs (and human beings), David Amess and Jo Cox, murdered while doing their job, but we have also seen Mike Freer announce he is stepping down from parliament after his office was subject to an arson attack. 

In 2024, it is hardly surprising that people are frequently coming up with new and innovative ways to demand our attention, in order to further a cause or point of view.   

Like the woman who came to my constituency surgery and ranted that because she ‘owned’ me, I had to do exactly as she said.  

No, madam, I owe you my industry and my judgement. I am elected to take decisions on behalf of all my constituents, not just those who turn up, shout and slam doors.  

I found it odd having to make the assessment that it was, on that occasion, actually one of my female constituents who was most likely to do me physical harm.

There is a fine line between reasonable protest and harassment.

A line that was crossed as I saw the images from the protest held at my colleague Tobias Ellwood’s home, after dark, when his wife and children were in the house, and felt very uncomfortable.  

As several colleagues commented, MPs’ home addresses should be off limits.  

Should be, but in fact they are not, and while most respect your privacy there have been those who have knocked on my door on a Sunday morning only to be greeted by me in my pyjamas.

I have never kept my home address a secret, although I don’t publish it on the ballot paper, but I don’t like having to live behind gates with security cameras everywhere. 

But it does show how tough things are when my child has a panic button in their bedroom, and experts urge me to have a security officer at my constituency surgery.

And that’s not for nothing. 

We heard last week that the woman who stabbed Stephen Timms at his surgery in 2010 has been deemed such a threat that she must remain in a maximum security prison, and some of my fellow MPs are wearing stab proof vests to meetings. 

I vividly remember my former colleague Charlotte Leslie having her car daubed in vile graffiti reading ‘Tory Scum’, numerous colleagues have had offices defiled, few of us still have letter boxes on our homes, and if we do there is a fireproof bag behind the door to prevent arson attacks.  

Some MPs quietly get on with seeing people via Zoom, assuming we can’t be attacked through a computer screen.

But in the age of deepfakes and AI, is that even true anymore?

I had to endure some idiot sending me anonymous letters with my head photoshopped onto a porn star’s body when I was a Home Office Minister under Theresa May. 

It was so badly done that it just made me laugh at the time, but technology has moved on, and I suspect at the next general election the images will be a million times better, and possibly indistinguishable as fakes.  

There are probably all sorts of people gearing up for that campaign right now by plotting how to most effectively discredit and attack those they disagree with politically.

As Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee I have no doubt my head is firmly stuck above the parapet sending an open invitation to take pot shots.

Of course – I know in the UK, despite all the problems I’ve had as an MP, we are lucky.  

This is not Putin’s Russia, political opposition and debate is welcome and encouraged.  

While critics may gather in the dead of night outside our houses, troll us online, try to intimidate us into not standing for election, target our children and mothers (as some delightful individual has been doing to me recently) none of us has had to endure what the dissident leader Alexei Navalny was put through and the agony that now must be for his family.  

It’s just another reminder for me that, while Heaven knows our democracy is not perfect, it is a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

And that’s why we have to protect it. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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