Maggie's Farm

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was trying to save Labour members from potentially having to vote against a resolution by the Scottish Independence Party that “called for an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza] and condemned the ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians.” Why was Hoyle trying to avert the necessity to vote on that resolution?

Not just for political reasons, but because a Muslim mob had gathered in Parliament Square and members were fearful for their safety:

It wasn’t just political discomfort: the fear of being seen as against a ceasefire was, in many cases, a fear for personal safety. In the Commons it was a Tory backbencher, Paul Bristow, who made the most arresting point.

He felt strongly about Gaza, he said, so much so that he lost his government job to support a ceasefire. But he also felt personally at risk in his Peterborough constituency because he was seen to be on Israel’s side.

“Because people misrepresented my position, someone suggested on social media that they would show my wife a real man,” he told MPs. “Someone else suggested that they would attack me and my family.” In other words, voting against a ceasefire would mean a credible threat of violence from extremists.

The murder of Sir David Amess at the hands of Ali Harbi Ali permanently changed the mood in the House of Commons. Ali had tracked two Tory MPs – Michael Gove and Mike Freer – as potential targets before he settled on his victim.

I’ve spoken to MPs who put it even more emphatically than Bristow. “It’s not a protest outside my house that I worry about, it’s the safety of my children,” said one. Another says he worries about being attacked on his journey back from the airport, which he never varies.