Dominic Raab said on Monday that “we don’t want the terrorists to win” when discussing increasing protection around MPs.
A national conversation about how to look after MPs started after Sir David Amess was stabbed to death on Friday, only five years after Jo Cox was murdered.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Raab explained: ”We need to respond to it, we need to make sure we are doing everything we can, we need to make sure we are doing that due diligence on everything.
“At the end of the day my feeling is, and it’s a personal one, is that we mustn’t let those who attack our democracy, who want to threaten us, who want to stop us talking to constituents and serving our communities.
“We can’t allow them to win, so yes to taking proportionate mitigation for the risks we take.
“But no to gifting those who want to paralyse our democracy.
“That can’t be right – that cannot be the outcome of this appallingly tragic case, the second in just a few years.”
His comments followed news that someone has been arrested after sending a death threat to Chris Bryant, Labour MP.
Raab also revealed that he had personally received death threats and warnings about an acid attack in recent years, too.
Raab explained that he feels it is important that MPs can still have a healthy relationship with their constituents without being constrained by various security measures.
He told the BBC’s Sally Nugent that the response taken needs to “proportionate” to the risk faced by MPs “without undermining or eroding the connection we need to have with our communities”.
He continued: “I’m not going to prescribe for each and every MP – I think it’s really important for those who are feeling anxious right now that they get the reassurance so that they’re safe, and also so they’ve got the confidence to do the job.”
He also told Sky’s Kay Burley that it’s impossible to enjoy a “risk-free society in a free society”.
Raab later touched on what might have radicalised Amess’ murderer as worries that online videos helped motivate the killer.
He explained: “I do think that for the vulnerable, for the mentally unwell, those at risk of radicalisation, all that time cooped up at home and spent online [during lockdown], there are certainly some risks related to that.
“As the threat and the kind of risk we see evolves and changes, we’ve got to adjust to that and that’s exactly what the police and intelligence services are doing.”
