Police offered support to tackle rising threats against MPs

Police forces are being offered specialist support from a new national democracy protection unit to deal with the rising level of threats and abuse facing MPs. Police chief Chris Balmer has been tasked with leading the new initiative to help forces investigate and tackle "anti-democratic crimes". Reports of crimes against MPs have more than doubled since 2019, reaching almost 1,000 last year, with the spike driven by allegations of harassment, criminal damage, and threats to kill. MPs told the BBC that death threats had become commonplace and many are not reported to police. Last month, Security Minister Dan Jarvis said: "The volume, breadth and tempo of threats against elected representatives is unprecedented." He announced Balmer as the national police lead for defending democracy and said he had written to the senior officer to emphasise "the importance of keeping pace with the evolving threat that abuse poses". In his role, Balmer will co-ordinate intelligence on threats to politicians, advise police forces on the categorisation of anti-democratic crimes, and provide specialist support to officers investigating alleged offenders. MPs reported 4,064 crimes to the Metropolitan Po