Next to the light switch in a room at the rear of the house, just above the door handle that now has a lock on it, there is a small plastic box on the wall.
It’s a panic button.
A double push would trigger an emergency response, alerting the authorities that the occupant is in their ‘safe room’ and needs help.
The property already has a police ‘marker’ on it because of the known security risk to those who live there: a politician and their family.
This is what home life is like now for MPs, MSPs, their partners and children.
They carry personal security alarms on them at all times. Letterboxes have fire-proof mailboxes on the inside. There are hardwired CCTV cameras throughout the building. Garden fences have been made higher. Taxis are used instead of public transport.
Occasionally, you will read in the media about some of the threats made against Scottish politicians, perhaps because they chose to speak out about it, or a case reached the courts.
But there are many, many terrifying incidents and ordeals you do not hear about.
Deciding how seriously to take a threat received online or via email, and when to call in the police, has become a weekly occurrence for staff.
Cops turning up at constituency offices to take yet another statement is far too common.
“The public are just angrier and more empowered to speak their anger,” one former MSP said.
The security of those we elect to represent us has been thrown back into the spotlight in recent weeks following the horrific killing of Ann Widdecombe.
Last month, prosecutors told a court she was hit on the head with a hammer 21 times after the suspected murderer entered through the front door of her home (main picture).
The death of the veteran politician, who served as a Conservative MP before becoming a Reform UK spokesperson, has left figures from all parties fearing for their safety once again.
Some were nervous about leaving their home in the days that followed.
“The worrying impact on politicians’ children comes up time and time again in conversations with MP and MSP staffers”
It is just over a decade since Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered outside a library where she was about to hold a constituency surgery, and nearly five years since Conservative MP Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed.
In 2024, Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood’s home was targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, while his party colleague Mike Freer stood down at the last general election because death threats and an alleged arson attack on his office had “become too much”.
And earlier this year, former deputy first minister Shona Robison opened up about her terrifying ordeal with a stalker, telling The Herald she had to warn her teenage daughter about going to school.
The worrying impact on politicians’ children comes up time and time again in conversations with MP and MSP staffers.
With their parents so immune to the abuse and hatred they receive, “we’re normalising it for a whole generation”, one warned.
The former Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has spoken previously about how he had to closely monitor the whereabouts of his three sons to ensure they were safe.
In 2018 I worked with him on an initiative to tackle Islamophobia in Scotland, and he subsequently received hate mail from far-right extremists.
“I have never before had to travel with a mobile device that lets people know where I am, when I’m there, and has a panic button,” he told The Daily Record at the time.
“I have never before had to think about my family’s travel and my children’s travel – to think about where they are and who they are with. Are they in a protected environment? I have to think about that all the time now.”
There is a common theme that emerges from conversations with those on the political front line: praise for the way that Police Scotland protects parliamentarians, and recognition of the extensive measures taken by Holyrood and Westminster chiefs to keep them safe.
Following the death of David Amess, Holyrood conducted a major review of security which led to significant investment, with more than 250 lone worker devices issued to MSPs and their staff and 108 local offices surveyed by Police Scotland.
All MSPs are now offered home residence surveys by officers, and the parliament covers the cost of necessary security upgrades.
“They couldn’t do enough for us – they really bend over backwards,” one MSP said.
A Scottish Parliament spokesperson explained: “Our security team provides a range of services tailored towards their personal safety and security. We also work closely with Police Scotland and escalate evidence of potentially criminal matters to the force for its action.”
Given the nature of MPs’ roles, with defence and national security largely reserved to Westminster, the Commons authorities tend to go even further.
Much of the focus is on private homes: CCTV, ‘safe rooms’, and fireproof mailboxes. It can be, understandably, deeply unsettling for families.
Just a year after he became prime minister, there were arson attacks on properties linked to Keir Starmer.
Deeply protective of his family – the names of his children have never been made public – it was clearly a worrying time for him.
Amid all the drama of his final days as prime minister in July, I was struck by one touching exchange he had with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch over the dispatch box.
“She has extended kindness to me privately at very difficult times, including when there was an attempt to burn down our family home, which deeply affected my family,” he told the Commons.
“She knows that this is robust, and it has to be robust – that is the way politics is done – but the kindnesses that sit behind it privately are often just as powerful, if not more powerful, and I thank her for that.”
However, it is not only politicians and their families who are impacted by increasing security concerns.
Many MP and MSP staffers now carry personal alarms, and they are taught never to leave the office door unlocked or be alone in the building, and must know the escape route in an emergency.
“When a surgery is scheduled, a security guard is assigned”
One senior member of staff recalled how a former cop conducted a security review of their constituency office and didn’t shy away from the risks, leaving them “terrified”.
The senseless killings of Jo Cox and David Amess also transformed the way that one-on-one surgeries work in this country, fundamentally changing a proud British tradition that was already alien to many other nations.
“Unusually good access to their political representatives,” is how The New York Times described the UK in 2021, with the concept earlier immortalised in Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop when minister Simon Foster is told he is heading back from the US to his Northamptonshire surgery. “Oh great – meeting my constituents.”
The reality is that most MSPs and MPs thrive on this part of the job. One senior MSP I worked for insisted that every staff member had to take turns joining them on the Friday tour of community centres and supermarkets.
Today, however, the rules of engagement are – rightly – much stricter.
Shona Robison told The Herald: “There was advice [about] not advertising where you were going on social media, like ‘I’m looking forward to being at the gala on Saturday’. It was a real shame.”
For MPs, the process now involves informing the parliament’s security company, Mitie, which has a contract to provide bodyguards as part of a £31 million package.
When a surgery is scheduled, a security guard is assigned – and they phone the MPs’ team the day before and an hour before to confirm arrangements, attending throughout.
However, among MSPs, three quarters of those who responded to a survey in 2022 said they were not interested in having security personnel accompany them to constituency surgeries or meetings.
The most common reasons were the perceived impact on access to parliamentarians and on the open relationship with constituents.
It’s a difficult balancing act.
But there is no doubt that parliamentary authorities, police forces, and politicians themselves are increasingly taking the risks they face seriously.
To demonstrate this, at Holyrood there is a monitoring tool that identifies and analyses online threats and abuse to MSPs.
During an eight-month trial, 461 online comments “reached a criminal threshold and were escalated to Police Scotland for its action and follow-up”.
The system was scaled up, and prior to May’s election around 80 MSPs had decided to opt in.
In this parliamentary session? The service is being used by 128 of the 129 MSPs elected.
A worrying sign of the times we live in.