UK government adviser warns assassination attempts becoming more likely

The UK government’s adviser on political violence said the growth of a “toxic, dangerous environment” in public life increased the risk of there being an assassination attempt on a British politician, as he called on the home secretary to launch an investigation into the intimidation of candidates in the election.

John Woodcock wrote to Yvette Cooper on Friday expressing his concern that a series of incidents in the election campaign could have been a “concerted campaign by extremists” that “underlined the gravity of the threat to our democracy”.

In an interview with the Guardian on Sunday, Woodcock, who has the title Lord Walney, said the apparent attempted murder of Donald Trump was “a vivid reminder of the vulnerability of all politicians”.

He added: “We have seen the growth in the UK of US-style politics of aggressive confrontation and intimidation which is unfortunately, exactly the toxic environment that could lead to another assassination attempt on a UK politician, of which we have already tragically seen a number in recent years.”

Many political candidates and their staff suffered threats and intimidation in the run-up to the election. Several of those targeted were female Labour candidates standing in seats where there was a strong opposition to the party’s stance on the war in Gaza.

Woodcock said he believed intimidation was increasingly being used as “a core electoral strategy to try to either get candidates defeated or bully candidates into submission”. He added that there was a particular pattern of abuse “created by aggressive pro-Palestine activists”.

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Woodcock, who was a Labour MP before becoming a cross-bench peer, was appointed by Boris Johnson’s government as an independent adviser on political violence and disruption. The findings of his review on the issue were published 24 hours before the election was called.

Titled Protecting Our Democracy from Coercion, his report was condemned by protest groups, including Greenpeace and Just Stop Oil. They said its proposals, which included a review of undercover surveillance of activists and making protest organisers pay towards policing, would “weaken democracy”.