A day out with Labour MP Zarah Sultana reveals how she constantly has to think about her safety
Zarah Sultana starts every event she attends the same way.
She has to log the date, location and time into a little mechanical device at each destination so security teams know where she is.
That way, if any danger were to occur, her colleagues and the parliamentary authorities can send support as quickly as possible.
She’s the Labour MP for Coventry South and the youngest Muslim MP ever elected in this country and believes this is partly the reason why this year – according to parliament’s own records – she’s the most at-risk MP online.
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Since the 7 October attacks by Hamas on Israel, there has been a noticeable uptick in the hatred and abuse she receives online and she says, ever since she has started talking about Palestinian rights, the abuse has come thick and fast.
Often when talking about abuse, out of politeness, we risk sanitising the words that people direct towards her. So I cautiously ask her whether she would mind being open about what life is like for her on an average day.
She candidly whips out her phone and rattles off some of the types of abuse she has to deal with.
“‘You should be deported b***h,” the first one reads.
“Go home to Pakistan,” another abuser writes.
Ms Sultana speaks into a device to let security teams know where she is
The last one before I stop her is the most shocking – it simply says: “Send that b***h to Palestine they are low on targets.”
I ask her why then she’s on social media at all. She insists it’s a crucial part of the job and it’s the most effective way to communicate with constituents as a young MP.
I’m accompanying her over 24 hours to see how these threats have impacted her, but in the process I’m amazed at how many security decisions she’s constantly making. She avoids public transport when she can, she’s thinking of any exits of every building she walks into in case of threats, and she is never alone on visits.
Out door-knocking with her and her team I casually mention that this is perhaps the most exposing part of being an MP.
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The Labour MP has acknowledged there is a risk when it comes to door-knocking
It involves knocking on strangers’ doors to ask for their vote. She accepts it’s part of the job but acknowledges the risks and says there have been times where she’s not been completely sure she was on solid ground in terms of her safety.
But she doesn’t want to let that get in the way of being an MP.
MP safety is a live issue and members’ duties have become more risky for members under threat.
Two MPs who were killed in their constituencies cast a long shadow.
Ms Sultana speaks at a refugee wellbeing centre in her constituency
Jo Cox was brutally murdered in 2016 and Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed five years later.
The risks are very real to sitting members of the House of Commons and for some MPs they see that risk as too high.
Mike Freer, a Conservative MP whose office was targeted in an arson attack on Christmas Eve last year, said he would be standing down at the next election, citing safety concerns as the reason.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak railed against “extremist forces trying to tear us apart” during a Downing Street address to the nation just over a week ago.
Parliamentary authorities say that safety is fundamental to democracy and offer a range of security measures for members.
More at risk MPs are entitled to more offerings and the security minister has said private cars have been given to some female MPs significantly at risk.
Ms Sultana is now upping her security – something needed even more as she starts campaigning to keep her seat in Coventry South.
Over a third of people think Rachel Reeves exaggerated economic bad news in the run-up to the budget – twice as many as thought the chancellor was being honest, a new Sky News poll has found.
Some 37% told a YouGov-Sky News poll that Ms Reeves made out things were worse than they really are. This is much higher than the 18% who said she was broadly honest, and the 13% who said things were better than she presented.
This comes in an in-depth look at the public reaction to the budget by YouGov, which suggests widespread disenchantment in the performance of the chancellor.
Just 8% think the budget will leave the country as a whole better off, while 2% think it will leave them and their family better off.
Some 52% think the country will be worse off because of the budget, and 50% think they and their family will be worse off.
This suggests the prime minister and chancellor will struggle to sell last week’s set-piece as one that helps with the cost of living.
Some 20% think the budget worried too much about help for older people and didn’t have enough for younger people, while 23% think the reverse.
The poll found 57% think the chancellor broke Labour’s election promises, while 13% think she did not and 30% are not sure. Some 54% said the budget was unfair, including 16% of Labour voters.
And it arguably gets worse…
This comes as the latest Sky News-Times-YouGov poll showed Labour and the Tories are now neck and neck among voters.
The two parties are tied on 19% each, behind Reform UK on 26%. The Greens are on 16%, while the Liberal Democrats are on 14%.
This is broadly consistent with last week, suggesting the budget has not had a dramatic impact on people’s views.
However, the verdict on Labour’s economic competence has declined further post-budget.
Asked who they would trust with the economy, Labour are now on 10% – lower than Liz Truss, who oversaw the 2022 mini-budget, and also lower than Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 election.
The Tories come top of the list of parties trusted on the economy on 17%, with Reform UK second on 13%, Greens on 8% and Lib Dems on 5%. Nearly half, 47%, don’t know or say none of them.
Only 57% of current Labour voters say the party would do the best job at managing the economy, falling to 25% among those who voted Labour in the 2024 election.
Some 63% of voters think Ms Reeves is doing a bad job, including 20% of current Labour voters, while just 11% of all voters think she is doing a good job.
A higher proportion – 69% – think Sir Keir Starmer is doing a bad job.
Paul Atkins, chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said that the agency can continue advancing digital asset regulation without legislation from Congress, signaling his expectations for the industry in 2026.
In a CNBC interview released on Tuesday, Atkins said the SEC was providing “technical assistance” as Congress considered legislation for digital asset regulation, likely referring to the market structure bill working its way through the US Senate. Atkins said that although the agency’s operations were impacted by the longest US government shutdown in the country’s history, he continued to make progress on “rules that are focused on helping [the crypto] sector.”
“We have enough authority to drive forward,” said Atkins. “I’m looking forward to having an innovation exemption that we’ve been talking about now. We’ll be able to get that out in a month or so.”
Atkins, whom the US Senate confirmed to chair the SEC in April after his nomination by US President Donald Trump, has taken steps to reduce the number of enforcement actions against crypto companies, including by issuing no-action letters for decentralized physical infrastructure networks.
His actions align with many of the policy directives from the White House under Trump, who has issued several executive orders touching on crypto and blockchain.
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The SEC chair rang the opening bell at the NYSE on Tuesday, outlining his plans for the agency “on the cusp of America’s 250th anniversary.”
US regulators are still awaiting progress on a market structure bill
Lawmakers on the US Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Banking Committee are taking steps to move forward with a digital asset market structure bill, which will outline the regulatory authority of agencies, including the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission, over cryptocurrencies.
Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott said that the committee planned to have the bill ready for markup in December.
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An official from the Bank of Russia suggested easing restrictions on cryptocurrencies in response to the sweeping sanctions imposed on the country.
According to a Monday report by local news outlet Kommersant, Bank of Russia First Deputy Governor Vladimir Chistyukhin said the regulator is discussing easing regulations for cryptocurrencies. He explicitly linked the rationale for this effort to the sanctions imposed on Russia by Western countries following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Chistyukhin said that easing the crypto rules is particularly relevant when Russia and Russians are subject to restrictions “on the use of normal currencies for making payments abroad.”
Russia banned the use of cryptocurrencies for payments in the summer of 2020.
Chistyukhin said he expects Russia’s central bank to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Finance on this issue by the end of this month. The central issue being discussed is the removal of the requirement to meet the “super-qualified investor” criteria for buying and selling crypto with actual delivery. The requirement was introduced in late April when Russia’s finance ministry and central bank were launching a crypto exchange.
Related: UK sanctions Kyrgyz banks, $9.3B crypto network tied to Russia
What is a super-qualified investor?
The super-qualified investor classification, created earlier this year, is defined by wealth and income thresholds of over 100 million rubles ($1.3 million) or an annual income of at least 50 million rubles.
This limits access to cryptocurrencies for transactions or investment to only the wealthiest few in Russian society. “We are discussing the feasibility of using ‘superquals’ in the new regulation of crypto assets,” Chistyukhin said, in an apparent shifting approach to the restrictive regulation.
Related: How a Russian national allegedly laundered $530M in crypto via Tether
Russia’s fight against sanctions
Russia has been hit with sweeping Western sanctions for years, and regulators in the United States and Europe have increasingly targeted crypto-based efforts to evade those measures.
In late October, the European Union adopted its 19th sanctions package against Russia, including restrictions on cryptocurrency platforms. This also included sanctions against the A7A5 ruble-backed stablecoin, which EU authorities described as “a prominent tool for financing activities supporting the war of aggression.”
Earlier in October, reports indicated that A7A5 — backed by the Russian ruble but issued in Kyrgyzstan — had become the world’s largest non-US-dollar stablecoin. In August, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also redesignated cryptocurrency exchange Garantex Europe to its list of sanctioned entities for a second time.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
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