Death of Ann Widdecombe

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Excerpts

Tuesday 14th July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord for his comments. He will know that Operation Bridger was established and, since 2024, the Home Office has funded a full-time network of national official advisers across all territorial police forces in the UK to bolster the Operation Bridger network. Each officer appointed by each force, funded by the Home Office, is a dedicated point of contact for MPs and, indeed, for candidates. In specific instances, such as by-elections, the police make assessments of the security threats, as they would have done in Makerfield recently and as they will do in the Clacton by-election that is occurring in August. There is a greater level of support for MPs now within constituencies than ever before. All MPs are advised to report incidents to the police and to reference Operation Bridger. The police will then do what I expect the noble Lord would do: triage those, look at what are serious, credible threats and take action accordingly, independently of government and of the House. As I mentioned, we will examine how the House of Lords can be involved in that as well.

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)]

My Lords, like my noble friend, I pay my respects to Ann Widdecombe and her family. She was an extraordinary woman. Like my noble friend, I did not agree with her, but I respected her. I associate myself with the comments that have been made about respecting politics, and the way in which a lack of respect in politics diminishes our democracy. Debate has become so polarised; it is frightening in many ways. Does my noble friend think that now is the time to do more to tackle online algorithms? Social media and the algorithms that perpetuate violence and threats against politicians have gone too far. We absolutely must do something so that we can truly restore respect in politics and have a healthy democracy.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend; I do not disagree with any word she said. Increasingly, threats and views are delivered in an online way. That online way has increased the toxicity of the debate we have in the public forum. We need to ensure that we examine that. Legislation is currently available to look at the online space and how it is managed.

I come back to the main point, which I want to re-emphasise for all noble Lords: there has been a vicious murder. We do not know the motivation for that murder yet, and speculation and the discussion today have strayed into potential political aspects. We do not yet know the causes of that murder. We will have proper investigation and I hope that charges will at some point be made against somebody for that murder and that they will be held to account in the courts. We can then examine whether there are lessons to be learned, whatever happened with the murder of our colleague Ann Widdecombe.