Nothing will change after Mike Freer stands down

Nothing will change in the wake of Mike Freer’s decision to stand down. That a Member of Parliament says he is leaving politics because of intimidation from Islamists is troubling enough, but Freer is a government minister. If the state cannot protect him, can it protect any of us?

In a letter to his local constituency association, the Conservative MP says he has received ‘several serious threats to my personal safety’ during his 14 years representing Finchley and Golders Green. He cited ‘attacks by Muslims Against Crusades, Ali Harbi Ali and the recent arson attack (where the motives remain unclear)’ for motivating his decision.

Freer claims that Muslims Against Crusades, an Islamist organisation, first issued him with a death threat in 2011, telling him ‘let Stephen Timms be a warning to you’. Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, had been stabbed the year before in an attempted assassination by an Islamist.