Jewish MP tells staff what to do if there is an attempt on his life

Tory Andrew Percy warns of risks caused by Gaza conflict and rise of ‘horrific Jew Hate’

A Jewish MP has told his staff what to do if there is an attempt on his life after he experienced a rise in anti-Semitic abuse, The Telegraph has been told.
Tory MP Andrew Percy said that he has had several conversations with his staff about “potential risks” that have arisen alongside conflict between Israel and Hamas.
This newspaper has spoken to Jewish MPs across parties about the anti-Semitism that they have faced in recent months, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on Saturday.
Labour MPs Charlotte Nichols and Dame Margaret Hodge said that they have had to change their security arrangements substantially.
Dame Margaret has increased the number of plain-clothes police officers at her constituency meetings, with some constituents having become “hostile” to her for the first time.
Ms Nichols said that she “basically can’t go anywhere alone anymore” and that “everything feels a lot more edgy right now”.
Mr Percy, the MP for Brigg and Goole, said: “I’ve spoken with my team about the potential risks arising from the current conflict.
“I’ve tried to keep the conversation a bit lighthearted, telling people what to remember or what they should do if somebody tries to off me.”
Mr Percy and Dame Margaret both read poetry at a candle-lighting ceremony held in parliament this week to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Mr Percy said that discussions with his staff about potential attacks included his “private preferences as to what I would like to happen”, but declined to detail specific arrangements made.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that provides advice and security to Britain’s Jewish community, has recorded more than 2,000 anti-Semitic incidents across the UK since Oct 7.
This compared with 330 recorded incidents over the same period a year earlier, an increase of 534 per cent.
Charlotte Nichols, MP for Warrington North, said in a debate in parliament earlier this month that she had been approached in the street and called a “murderer”.
Of the incident, she said: “It’s relatively low level and there were people around who intervened, but you worry about what happens if someone like this catches you when you’re by yourself and how it could very easily escalate.
“There are various local Facebook forums where people encourage each other to do this sort of stuff and it only takes one nutter.”
One social media post about Dame Margaret’s recent visit to Israel received almost 2,000 comments that violated the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, according to monitoring by the CST.
Mr Percy said of the anti-Semitism directed at him on social media: “In the past two weeks alone, I’ve been called ‘Zionist scum’, been told that ‘nobody cares about Jews’ and had the civilian hostages described as ‘them Zionist rat hostages’.”
He has also been accused of having “bloodlust and desire to kill Palestinian children, just for supporting the state of Israel”.
Mr Percy said his main cause for concern, however, was the language used at some pro-Palestinian protests.
At one event, attendees chanted “jihad” and refer to the Palestinian territories as a “concentration camp”. The Home Office has since moved to proscribe Hizb ut-Tahrir, the group behind the protest, as a terrorist organisation.
Mr Percy said: “These protests are potentially radicalising events as the police seemingly stand by and allow the chanting of slogans which openly call for the eradication of Jews.
“The abundance of radicalising extremist material relating to this conflict and the horrific Jew hate we have seen on marches does make us far more aware of the risks at the moment.”
Dame Margaret, 79, added that she decided not to leave the house on the morning of one protest as she believed that doing so would be “provocative”.
The veteran MP also faced personal abuse after she criticised the Labour party’s updated anti-Semitism guidelines, in 2018.
Dame Margaret said: “Not as many people recognise me today as they did back then, but I still do get recognised and that was enough to make my parliamentary team fearful for my safety.”
The MP for Barking added that she was now “very desensitised” to anti-Semitic abuse as she has faced “so much over the years”.
She has been in contact with the police over abuse directed towards her in recent months, however, though there have been no specific threats to her life.
Andrew Percy said that he had also spoken to the police, through Operation Bridger, which gives MPs access to extra security in their homes and constituency offices.
The programme was established after the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox at a surgery in her West Yorkshire constituency in 2016.
Mr Percy said: “There have been no specific threats to my life, but at the same time, two colleagues of mine have been killed in their line of work despite never having previously been the target of an attack before.”