AN MP has said MPs have to remain careful, after a £31million package to protect them from threats was announced by the Home Office.

Sir Robert Syms, MP for Poole, said threats ‘go a little bit with the territory’, and most of them aren’t serious.

“We all get threats, and we all get people that send us in letters or threaten to do things,” Sir Robert said.

“I just think you have to be careful sometimes when you say you are going to a particular place, so that somebody watching what you’re doing on the internet doesn’t turn up unexpected.

“I think the Dorset Police do a very good job and I’m always in contact with them, as are the other MPs to make sure that we are safe.”

The announcement comes after pro-Palestine protestors demonstrated outside Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood’s house.

“I do think there is an issue of people demonstrating outside people’s homes, where people have family,” Sir Robert said.

“I think the police are aware of that and they need to be very quick to deal with it.

“I think there is probably an issue where the government ought to change the law because I think most of us in public life accept there are risks, but when you worry about your kids, that is a slightly different matter.

“I think the recent spate of demonstrating outside somebody’s home or creating difficulties I think is probably something that we need to nip in the bud, otherwise you’re going to get quite a lot of this sort of intimidation.

“That even might go for councillors and people like that who take decisions and have people find out where they live and turn up and cause a bit of noise and a bit of disruption.”

He added: “To be honest, when David Ames died and when other MPs were attacked, there was a big improvement in security arrangements in offices and homes so I’m not sure what more could be done, short of attaching bodyguards to people, but there’s a limit of what you can do with that.”