Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan may install panic button in her office following killing of Jo Cox
The Tory Education Secretary has received a terrorist death threat and a warning she would be physically attacked
A CABINET MINISTER yesterday revealed she may install a panic button in her office in the wake of the death of Jo Cox as MPs demanded action to beef up security.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said she had previously received a terrorist death threat and a further warning she would be physically attacked.
The MP for Loughborough said MPs suffered abuse “all the time”.
And she said: “Panic buttons are going to become a lot more common.
“I’m thinking of having one fitted in my office.”
The call came as senior Tory backbencher Sir Nicholas Soames – grandson of Sir Winston Churchill – said public debate is “now much rougher than it was”.
He said: “It’s much more vicious.”
Home Secretary Theresa May is being urged to take personal charge of reviewing MPs security, including co-ordinating the response of police forces across the country to threats.
The Tory leadership contender is expected to hold a meeting with MPs and parliamentary officials today.
Chris Bryant said he warned after becoming Shadow Leader of the Commons last September that an MP could be shot but claimed nothing was done.
Liz McInnes, the Labour MP for Heywood and Middleton near Rochdale, revealed yesterday that it took the police a day to reply with advice on whether she should still hold her constituency surgery last week.
Mike Weatherley, a former MP for Hove, said the abuse he suffered as an MP was one of the reasons he stood down before the 2015 General Election.
He suffered death threats after supporting a change in the law on squatting and calling for Britain speak up on gay rights in Russia.
A Commons report last year revealed female MPs’ concerns about stalkers and being attacked with “knives and guns”.