Following the murder of a retired politician last week, the United Kingdom is debating the security measures provided to its politicians. Reform Party leader Nigel Farage has pushed hard for improved security, complaining that current provisions are woefully inadequate. He is correct, although his party’s solution to provide full-time protection to politicians is unfunded. Still, entering office on Monday, the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, should act with urgency to remedy the situation.
Ann Widdecombe was a retired Conservative Party politician who had previously served as a government minister during the 1990s. A regular guest on daytime television and political affairs shows, Widdecombe was widely liked for her irreverent, old-school personality. A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of her politically motivated murder. This assassination should be a wake-up call for the U.K.
The first issue is an outdated, cost-saving approach to security. The U.K. revels in avoiding the kind of encompassing security bubble that often surrounds U.S. politicians. And it’s true, some U.S. politicians receive wholly excessive security measures that do nothing but burn taxpayer dollars. Why does the mayor of Chicago need a security detail larger than those of many heads of state? Why do non-national security-related Cabinet secretaries have two vehicle motorcades with police escorts? Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was notorious for his outsize security detail, for example. Indeed, the contrast between U.S. protective security tactics and those of the U.K. is truly striking. Consider the contrast in security that King Charles III receives in the U.K. and what he received during his recent visit to the United States.
While enhanced security limits both the perception and reality of accessibility to an elected official, it is also crucial to the conduct of effective democracy. If otherwise talented individuals fear physical harm if they win elected office, they are far less likely to pursue public service. Perceived outsize vulnerability to threats also risks deterring politicians away from controversial but necessary policies.
Nor has the U.K. adapted to its changed threat environment. Labour Party parliamentarian Jo Cox was murdered while traveling to meet constituents in 2016. Reflecting continued disregard for the rising threat, parliamentarians were allowed to claim expenses for traveling home in taxis. But in 2021, Conservative Party parliamentarian David Amess was also assassinated during a meeting with constituents. Parliamentarians were subsequently provided with private security at their constituency meetings. But not with automatic police or armed police security (most U.K. police officers are unarmed).
Particular focus needs to fall on better protecting those politicians at the highest risk. The U.K. government’s RAVEC group is responsible for setting the security afforded to at-risk officials. With limited resources, RAVEC has rightly resisted the absurd security demands of prima donnas such as Prince Harry. But the security being provided to Farage and other top politicians, such as Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, is clearly inadequate. Breaking a sacrosanct protection rule that you need two personnel at all times, one to engage a threat and the other to cover and evacuate a principal, top U.K. officials are sometimes seen with only one bodyguard. Yet the risks of a successful assassination of one of these leaders don’t begin and end with the individuals themselves.
Take Farage and his Reform Party. Reform is leading big in the opinion polls and expected to form the next government under Farage’s premiership (an election must be called on or before Aug. 15, 2029). Now, imagine a scenario in which Farage was assassinated by a fanatic who opposes his push to increase immigration controls. Such an incident would surely see already soaring tensions over immigration provoke massive public disturbances. Social divisions would widen, extremist sentiments would calcify, and the U.K.’s stability might even come into question.
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Urgent action is needed, then. Some of this security deficit can be reduced by improving access security at the homes and offices of parliamentarians. That means money and builders. But the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police Service’s Protection Command, responsible for providing armed close protection officers to at-risk individuals, clearly also needs a major injection of personnel and cash. This will bolster security for Farage, Badenoch, etc., and perhaps even the king and prime minister (whose security is also arguably inadequate). But it will also provide a resource pool from which protection can be rapidly assigned to other individuals as and when it is required.
Unless and until the U.K. acts, however, its politicians will continue to live under unacceptable threat. This might seem like no big deal for voters who are more concerned about the U.K.’s soaring living costs and high taxes. But no democracy can thrive if the whim of the assassin is granted deference over the will of the people.