In February 2023, we launched the Jo Cox Civility Commission, dedicated to finding implementable solutions to the problem of abuse and intimidation of elected politicians.
Since then, we’ve heard from more than 100 stakeholders, including those with lived experience of the issue, and expert organisations.
Among those stakeholders have been a significant number of local politicians.
Though the focus of our work was not on evidencing the problem of abuse, we heard many moving examples of how this issue is affecting not just your ability to do your elected role, but your lives, and those of your families.
Based on our stakeholder engagement, we have developed 28 recommendations that we believe, if adopted, will make a significant impact on this worsening issue of abuse.
These fall into eight categories: coordination and behaviour; social media; elections; local government; Parliament (Westminster and devolved administrations); political parties; political literacy; and police and security.
Two strong themes emerged on which we have focused key recommendations.
The first is a lack of central coordination about the problem. There are people and organisations working to address it, but to see real, transformative change, we are calling for the Government to implement and resource a central unit to look at the issue.
This would include coordinating existing initiatives, resourcing new solutions, and facilitating information sharing between agencies.
The second issue that echoed through our stakeholder conversations was the impact of political literacy, or a lack of it, on abuse.
Many people just don’t understand what their elected representatives do and the responsibilities of different levels of government. This can lead to confusion, distrust, and in the worst cases, abuse.
We are calling for a number of initiatives that would tackle this, including introducing mandatory political literacy to the school curriculum, and public awareness campaigns about the roles of various levels of government.
We have designed the recommendations to focus on improving conditions for serving politicians, but also on tackling the root causes of this issue. Some can be implemented relatively swiftly, but we know that for others – including the political literacy recommendations – it will take longer to see their impact.
Among our recommendations, those that will be of particular interest to local politicians include:
Extending the remit of the existing Operation Bridger security programme to support local politicians. There are examples of police forces who already do this well, giving an excellent case study of how it can be achieved.
Provision of clearer written instructions about what abuse to report to the police, and the channels and methods of escalation if needed.
Urging local authorities to pass motions affirming principles to address abuse and model good behaviour.
Ensuring that local authorities make available security and wellbeing resources to local councillors.
We’re thrilled to have published our call to action, but the real work starts now, as we push to ensure these recommendations are implemented.
Are you interested in supporting us? The more public support we have from those experiencing these issues, the stronger our case when pursuing our advocacy work.
Head to our website now – www.jocoxfoundation.org/commission – to read the call to action and sign up to endorse the recommendations.
To find out more about the work of the Jo Cox Foundation, please visit www.jocoxfoundation.org. The LGA’s Debate Not Hate campaign provides resources and tools for councillors, visit www.local.gov.uk/debate-not-hate.