Ethnic minority women MPs most targeted for abuse and attack, parliamentary authorities say

Women MPs from ethnic minorities are significantly more likely to be subject to abuse and attack by members of the public, parliamentary authorities responsible for security have warned.

The deputy speaker and Parliament’s head of security are leading a probe into MPs’ safety in the wake of the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by a right-wing extremist. The inquiry is in the process of surveying and collating MPs’ experiences of being attacked – both in person and online.

Though the final figures from the survey are expected in two weeks time, Lindsay Hoyle, the deputy speaker leading on the security crackdown, said preliminary results showed women and ethnic minorities were by far the most heavily targeted.

“All MPs, I believe, are vulnerable to abuse, attack and threat, but more so for women MPs – that is the one thing I’ve picked up since I’ve taken over this jobs,” he told the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday.

“Then you can break that down even further to ethnic minority MPs and in particular ethnic minority women MPs who’ve suffered more abuse than other MPs on the evidence that we’ve gathered so far.”

The deputy speaker said he had sat down for discussions with MPs who had been the subject of the heaviest abuse and that ethnic minority women were being attacked “from two sides” – for their gender and ethnicity.

Mr Hoyle revealed that “there have been physical attacks” against MPs since the murder of the late Ms Cox ahead of the EU referendum and that attacks had also taken place against MPs’ staff.

The deputy speaker added: “We are aware of it, we are collating it, and we are keeping a record of it.”

Mr Hoyle said Parliament would now be taking a “zero tolerance” approach and that MPs were being encouraged to report even the smallest incidents. He also argued that social media technology companies were complicit in the abuse for failing to crack down on it.

Eric Hepburn, who has served as Parliament’s director of security for six months, said MPs were in “a very good position” in terms of protection from attack while they were in Westminster and that there were a “good basic set of measures” at their homes and offices.

He however warned that MPs were essentially “on their own” in terms of security while they were out and about in their constituencies.

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Appearing alongside Mr Hoyle at the committee hearing Mr Hepburn cited a BBC survey of MPs that suggested that one third of all MPs had considered quitting as a result of abuse they had received.

Last month Diane Abbott, Britain’s first black woman MP, warned that misogyny and abuse she had received were putting women off politics.

“Suppose that someone had told me back then that 30 years on I would be receiving stuff like this: ‘Pathetic useless fat black piece of shit Abbott. Just a piece of pig shit pond slime who should be fucking hung (if they could find a tree big enough to take the fat bitch’s weight)’,” she wrote in the Guardian newspaper.

“Then I think that, even the young, recklessly fearless Diane Abbott might have paused for thought."