1 in 4 councillors experience threats of violence or death

The Local Government Association (LGA) has published their results of their Debate Not Hate survey which reports on abuse faced by councillors in England and Wales. The third annual iteration, it was launched in May 2025 and set to all councillors in England and Wales, with 11 per cent (1,861) responding. This is the highest rate so far, up from 1,734 responses in 2024 and 815 in 2023.

The respondents come from across a variety of different council types, from district to county to unitary and more, and across political affiliations.

This report came into fruition following the finding in the 2022 Councillors’ Census that seven in ten councillors have reported experiencing abuse or intimidation. 

The findings revealed that 73 per cent of survey respondents reported feeling at risk when fulling their role as a councillor, a figure consistent with last year’s survey (74). This was especially high among women (84 per cent), ethnic minorities (84 per cent), LGBTQ+ individuals (85 per cent), and disabled respondents (85 per cent).

Within the last twelve months, 72 per cent of respondents reported experiencing abuse or intimidation because they were councillors. Again, women (78 per cent), the LGBTQ+ community (85 per cent), and disabled respondents (86 per cent) experienced high rates.

One in four respondents had experienced a threat of violent or a threat of death against themselves or someone close to them.

Additionally, more than half of respondents (52 per cent) had experienced the spread of misinformation about their their personal or political character, whilst 11 per cent had been the victim of the inappropriate publication of their personal information.

More than one in five (21 per cent) had reported an incident of abuse or intimidation to the police, although 30 per cent of those felt the policing response had not addressed their concern at all. More than half of respondents (58 per cent) reported that their authority’s arrangements for protection them were very or fairly effectively, yet this means more than one in four felt this was not the case.

56 per cent of respondents are uncertain about whether to stand in the next elections, with more than a quarter of (26 per cent) saying abuse or intimidation risk was their reason why. This was higher among female (32 per cent) and disabled respondents (37 per cent).

Respondents were invited to provide commentary about the safety of councillors, with popular responses being: observations on the use of social media and online platforms to express abuse or intimidation, the need for better support for councillors, protected characteristics as fuel for abuse, and abuse and intimidation stemming from public misunderstanding of the role and power of councillors.