British MP's death leaves lawmakers anxious over rising violence

For the third time in just over a decade, a British politician has fallen victim to political violence. The murder of former MP Ann Widdecombe last week has once again highlighted the increasingly charged political climate in the UK, as the country undergoes another change of government.

Lawmakers stood one by one in Parliament this week to pay tribute to the slain politician, while voicing growing concern over the rise in political violence, as CNN reports.

“Politics is a calling for those of us here, but it should not be a dangerous one,” Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said, seeking to reassure Members of Parliament (MPs) about their safety.

Widdecombe's death follows the killings of sitting MPs Jo Cox and David Amess in 2016 and 2021, extending a tragic string of attacks that has made the past decade one of the most dangerous periods for British politicians in modern history.

Although the UK experienced political assassinations during the Northern Ireland conflict, such attacks have been virtually unheard of in peacetime.

Widdecombe, a former Conservative MP who later served as the immigration spokesperson for the right-wing populist Reform UK party, was found dead at her home last week after suffering “serious injuries.”

Police initially said there was no indication that the killing was politically motivated. They later announced that counterterrorism officers had taken over the investigation. A 28-year-old White British man, who has not been identified, was arrested first on suspicion of murder and later on suspicion of the “commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”

As CNN notes, the murders of Cox and Amess were driven by very different motives. Cox, a center-left Labour MP, was killed by a man with extreme right-wing views who possessed an extensive collection of Nazi memorabilia. Amess, a Conservative MP, was murdered by a “fanatical Islamist” inspired by Islamic State. Unlike the political violence associated with the Northern Ireland conflict, the recent attacks do not appear to stem from a single unifying ideology but rather from a range of extremist beliefs.

Responding to the latest attack, Cox's widower, Brendan Cox, said he feels “much less optimistic” about the state of political discourse than he did a decade ago.

He believes “the Wild West culture we have online” is a major driver of political violence, amplifying and legitimizing extremist behavior.

“Until we do something about that information environment which is legitimising violence as a political tool I think we’ll keep coming back to this situation,” he said. “My frustration is not with the public but with an ecosystem where the regulators and politics enable social media to consistently promote the most extreme content, often content which is violent.”

While crime against individuals and households in the UK has generally declined over the past decade, parliamentary reports and numerous MPs have pointed to social media as a key factor fueling political violence.

Rising political violence is not unique to the UK, although the number of lawmakers who have been killed is unusually high by European standards, where attacks targeting politicians remain rare. Across the rest of Europe, politicians have also faced a sharp increase in verbal abuse, harassment, threats and intimidation, a trend the European Parliament attributes to “increased political polarization.”

By Nazrin Sadigova