As part of Democracy Volunteers’ election observation for the 2025 English Local Elections, held on May 1st, the team worked with students from Manchester University to assess the impact on local election candidates because of the threats they receive.
Our team wrote to over 2,000 candidates, across parties, to see what issues they faced when campaigning for election in May. The data collected, and the subsequent interviews held with some of the respondents put the issues raised into focus.
- One respondent said: “Put your name up on Facebook with the name of your party—Reform UK—and suddenly you’re a jackbooty, brownshirt, swastika-wearing member of the Nazi party.”
- Another said: ““People have attempted to spit on me… This was probably six or seven times.”
- And: “They would say, ‘If you don’t get off my property, I will kill you.”
The data collected shows that 39% of those responding had been subject to some form of abuse or threat. The data suggests that women, ethnic minorities and members of the LGBTQ+ community are the most likely to be affected.
Democracy Volunteers have made ten recommendations which will be put to the Government and the Electoral Commission, for their consideration. They are:
- Establish a National Candidate Safety Unit
- Introduce Safety Training for Election Candidates
- Launch a Public Awareness Campaign on Civility in Politics
- Expand and Strengthen Operation Ford
- Strengthen Legal Penalties for Threats and Harassment of Candidates
- Partner with Technology Companies to Address Online Anonymity and Abuse
- Fund Mental Health Support for Candidates and Campaigners
- Provide Local Authorities with Security Equipment Funding
- Create a National Incident Reporting Portal
- Encourage Political Parties to Bring In Safety Protocols
Commenting, Director of Democracy Volunteers, Dr John Ault said;
“We are living in a period where a combination of online anonymity and increasing levels of a lack of public civility is leading candidates to receive completely unacceptable threats, abuse and even violence. Our report highlights some of these issues and we feel it is important for an organisation, such as ours, whose fundamental objective is the integrity of elections, to look into this sort of problem.”
“The evidence of our survey is that people who would stand are not because they are put off by the nature of modern political discourse. This means that those elected will be less representative.”
You can read the full report below, or listen to our Director John Ault and our researcher Matt Davis on the Observations Podcast to find out more.
