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MPs need security. I just pray it can be done without a guard outside their bedroom with a Beretta, writes ex-Tory MP JERRY HAYES – who got protection after featuring on an IRA death list
Writing in the Daily Mail, former Conservative MP Jerry Hayes reflects on the physical security given to MPs, drawing on his own experience of armed protection in the 1980s and 1990s after his name appeared on an IRA death list. He argues that while MPs must be protected following attacks and murders including those of Airey Neave, Ian Gow, Jo Cox and Sir David Amess, and the assault on Ann Widdecombe, security measures must be balanced so politicians remain accessible to the public rather than isolated behind "a ring of steel".
Hayes recalls being told by Commons security that his public praise of the SAS shooting of IRA bombers in Gibraltar in 1988 had placed him on a death list, after which armed guards, including men with Heckler and Koch machine guns, were stationed around his home. He describes several unsettling incidents from that period, such as being evacuated from a plane after Ian Gow's assassination, narrowly avoiding a bag of flour dropped from a tower block in his Harlow constituency, and an armed response to a car that turned out to belong to a man who had merely run over a cat.
In short
- Ex-Tory MP Jerry Hayes recounts his IRA-era armed protection.
- He argues MPs need security but must stay accessible to the public.
- Cites Neave, Gow, Cox and Amess as reminders of the risks MPs face.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
MPs face genuine, documented threats—multiple have been murdered in office—justifying comprehensive security measures. Security professionals' threat assessments should drive appropriate protective measures for elected officials; ensuring politicians' safety is essential to preserving democratic institutions and enabling representative government to function properly.
The case against
Effective representation requires MPs to remain meaningfully accessible to constituents, and overly intensive security measures create unnecessary barriers between elected officials and the public. Hayes's experience demonstrates that calibrated, proportionate protection can adequately safeguard whilst preserving democratic connection; excessively fortified approaches ultimately undermine the very institutions they aim to protect by isolating politicians from public accountability.
Explained simply
Members of Parliament have faced serious threats in Britain in recent decades, with several murdered including Airey Neave, Ian Gow, Jo Cox and Sir David Amess, and others such as Ann Widdecombe assaulted. These attacks have prompted the authorities to provide security protection for elected representatives.
Jerry Hayes is a former Conservative MP who received armed protection during the 1980s and 1990s after being placed on an IRA death list. The threat came after he publicly praised an SAS operation against IRA members in Gibraltar in 1988, following which armed guards with automatic weapons were stationed around his home.
Hayes lived through an extended period of intensive security protection and saw firsthand how such measures affect an MP's daily life. His experience gives him perspective on the challenge of protecting politicians from real threats whilst keeping them accessible and engaged with the public and their constituents.