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Committee on Standards in Public Life Roundtable Discussion: Review Into Intimidation of Parliamentary Candidates

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Committee on Standards in Public Life Roundtable Discussion: Review Into Intimidation of Parliamentary Candidates Committee on Standards in Public Life Roundtable discussion: Review into intimidation of Parliamentary candidates Tuesday 12 September 2017 at 2 pm Committee members present: Lord Bew, Rt Hon Dame Margaret Beckett DBE MP, Sheila Drew Smith OBE, Simon Hart MP, Dr Jane Martin CBE, Jane Ramsey, Monisha Shah Roundtable members present: Professor Tim Bale Queen Mary, University of London Rt Hon Sir Kevin Barron MP House of Commons Professor Rosie Campbell Birkbeck, University of London Professor Neil Chakraborti University of Leicester James Davies BCS David Evans BCS Adam Finkel-Gates Claire Foster-Gilbert Westminster Abbey Institute Dr Jennifer vanHeerde-Hudson University College London (UCL) Dr Ruth Lewis University of Northumbria Alasdair MacDonald EHRC Joy Morrissey Women2Win Fiyaz Mughal TellMAMA Dr Victoria Nash Oxford Internet Institute Professor Mark Philp Chair, CSPL Research Advisory Board Rt Hon Peter Riddell CBE Commissioner for Public Appointments Lisa Robillard Webb Dr Jonathan Rose De Montfort University Josh Smith Demos Dr Mark Shephard University of Strathclyde Kasia Staszewska Amnesty International Danny Stone Anti-Semitism Policy Trust 1 Lord Bew: Thank you all very much for coming. I have been reminded not to start on Irish time, which is my rather bad habit, and instead to start at something approximate to English time. I am sorry there has been a bit of a cluster in getting up to the room. I am very happy to see you all here today because we, the Committee on Standards in Public Life, have an interesting problem, which is that the Prime Minister has asked us to look at the issue of intimidation and public life, not just at candidates about the election. We as a committee are determined to do what we can to defend civility in British public life. The committee’s function as an independent non-partisan committee is to defend the Nolan principles regarding British public life, but actually those principles are not really operative without a successful functioning parliamentary liberal democracy alongside them. If you look at some of the Nolan principles, any dictator can claim to be honest, full of objectivity and so on. While it is the case that these principles should be promoted in public life, they require alongside them a successful liberal democracy. We have come to the conclusion, in the work we have carried out so far, that we have a special problem in recent times in and around the issue of intimidation, which we are looking at not simply as to the question of whether or not people might leave public life that we need in public life but also the impact generally of certain types of intimidation on certain types of public debate, so in some ways we are thinking about a wider question as well. We have some very eloquent letters in the office from people saying, “They’re all namby-pambies nowadays. When I stood for office 20 years ago, I can tell you what happened: it was rough”. Some of these letters are very well written and forceful, but the balance of evidence that we have received is that we cannot go with the “namby- pamby” thesis and there is a special problem. We are determined to be nonpartisan and objective in the way that we do this. The committee is independent. That is why we need the help of those of you who are in this room today. We are very keen to hear your thoughts. We want to know what can be done, what your views are on the changing tone of political debate, and what the responsibilities of individuals, political parties in Parliament and social media companies are in this context. I will not be chairing the session. Jane Ramsey, who has been doing a lot of the work on these issues, will be chairing it, so I will hand over to her. Jane Ramsey: Thank you. Thanks again to everyone who is participating. Sorry about the absence of water; it is on its way, running not on Irish time but on Cabinet Office time. On the theme of time, obviously you are all experts in your own different ways and we are very keen to hear from you. We would be very grateful if you, and we on the committee, all focused on the themes set out in the agenda, which you will have received. We are interested in understanding the nature of the problem, the impact of social media and the broader effects that these have on public life. A bit more about logistics: we will be live-tweeting, so feel free. The meeting is on the record and there will be a transcript that will be published on the website. If you want to have a discussion about that in the comments that you have made, talk to Maggie, who is already tweeting at the back of the room. I would be grateful if everyone could state their name and briefly what their interest is in the subject. Before we start, I should say that our current definition of intimidation is, “Words or behaviour intended or likely to block participation in public life”. Although this review focuses on parliamentary candidates, we are also considering, receiving evidence from and talking to others in public life, both candidates for public office and other 1 public office holders. On my left is Professor Mark Philp, who will be contributing and helping us to steer the debate and make sure that we are focusing. The first question is: we have a wealth of varied roles and experiences in the room, and we are very interested in hearing your understanding of the nature and scale of the problem of intimidation during election campaigns. Who would like to start? Lisa Robillard Webb: I can. I am chair of a Labour Party in central Devon. I was also a parliamentary candidate; I have stood for election 13 times and dismally failed each time. I am here today because my experience in the general election was of a party member, who purports to be in my local party, tweeting regularly and saying very controversial and sometimes abusive things to other people. The impact that that has on myself and my local party is that it paralyses us in our campaigning, because he is able to tweet to an audience who believe what he is saying. It is then very hard for us, because we do not have the means, to recompense that. The abusive side to myself is that he regularly talks about me, which I am alerted to by party members late at night by emails and telephone calls. He has a history of violence and mental illness but he stays the right side of the law with his vocabulary. When I brought a complaint, the police told me to “phone 999 if I can”, which frightened the hell out of me. That is why I am here today. My party is underresourced and not developed enough to handle this situation. He has now been suspended but continues with his abuse online. I do not think our society has caught up yet. We do not seem to have the devices or funding. That is my experience. Jane Ramsey: Lisa, that is a shocking and horrible experience that you have had. Obviously we will look later at the content of what you think we might do. You said “so many times”—was that different in the most recent election that you stood in? Lisa Robillard Webb: It has been going on for two and a half years. I cannot seem to get a response. He has been suspended but I do not get regular support. The last time it escalated again, so whenever I stand for election that makes it worse. Jane Ramsey: What social media is he on? Lisa Robillard Webb: Twitter. John Vincent: I have been a parliamentary candidate several times now. My first candidacy was back in 1992, but I have been a campaigner since 1985. I have seen quite a marked change. I am in relatively subdued Surrey, so I do not see some of the intimidation that you might see elsewhere. The referendum had a tremendous impact, and what we were talking about that concerned me greatly was the impact that the mindless abuse has on young people. I have been doing this for a long time now, and you expect a degree of abuse—not to shun it and think it is normal, but to be able to stand your ground. During the referendum, I was on a street stall in Uxbridge. We had some students from Brunel University helping us. Some Leave campaigners targeted the young people in particular with intimidation, and I found myself having to stand between people. That requires you to have a very delicate assessment of the potential for violence in a given situation, and you have to make a judgment as to whether the person is all mouth and no trousers, is just making a lot of noise and will go away if you stand your ground, or whether they are going to start to become physically violent in some way. It takes time in campaigning to acquire that sense of being able to assess someone immediately in a situation like that. As for social media, I have not experienced the extremes that Lisa has experienced. As a councillor, the stuff I used to get was generally letters written in green ink 2 containing very superficial abuse—just ordinary day-to-day abuse, consisting of crude words. If you write a press release, rarely do they read beyond the headline; they will take your views from the headline, which has made me much more careful when I write headlines about what I put in them.
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