Why are so many of our MPs facing death threats?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If the Palace of Westminster were a village - the Head of Counter Terrorism police tells us - NO one would dare to live there.
Today we ask why so many of our MPs face threats to life - and what it's doing to our democracy more broadly, in terms of how they vote and speak out.
Also, should we be concerned about actual terrorist acts from countries like China and Russia and Iran - are they operating on our streets - without the public even knowing?
Editor: Tom Hughes
Producer: Laura FitzPatrick
Social Media Editor: Georgia Foxwell
Video Production: Shane Fennelly & Arvind Badewal
You can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents"!
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:09.0 | This is a global player original podcast. Amongst those 650, you know, 23 threats to kill. You know, |
| 0:17.9 | if this was a village of 650 people, you wouldn't want to live in it. |
| 0:22.8 | And yet we're asking people to step forward to play a part in our democracy. |
| 0:27.5 | That was Matt Dukes. He's the head of counterterrorism in the UK. |
| 0:32.2 | And today he's telling us about the threat to our democracy that comes from the intimidation of our MPs. |
| 0:40.7 | Currently, 23 parliamentarians are facing live death threats. What is that doing to how |
| 0:49.4 | they're able to represent us in their votes? What is it doing to our democracy? |
| 0:54.8 | What is happening with the terror threat |
| 0:57.0 | when so many young people now seem to be engaging |
| 1:00.6 | in acts of terrorism |
| 1:02.6 | and the statistics for the number of arrests astonishing? |
| 1:06.4 | What about the state actors who are suddenly getting involved? |
| 1:09.4 | It is a fascinating discussion on the widespread nature of the threat to Britain today. |
| 1:18.8 | Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:23.5 | It's John. It's Emily. |
| 1:27.2 | And there is so much to ask the head of counterterrorism right now |
| 1:32.4 | about the protests that are going on in our streets, |
| 1:36.1 | about the threats to our state from other states done, |
| 1:40.1 | not through big-scale wars, but through terrorism against the individual. |
| 1:46.3 | We've also heard in the last few weeks about two parliamentary researchers |
| 1:51.9 | charged under the Espionage Act, what on earth is going on there with MPs and their WhatsApp messages |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Global, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Global and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.