“I have a panic alarm in my bag”: the grim reality of life as a female politician in Britain

84 per cent of female councillors say they feel at risk doing their job – with online and in-person abuse becoming worryingly normalised.

“There have been periods where I’ve not wanted to be out in the town that I live in on my own,” Hannah Perkin, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Faversham, Kent, tells The Lead. “I’ve now got a panic alarm in my bag. I feel incredibly intimidated all the time. “I’ve had pretty constant abuse for the last year or so.”

Perkin first stood for election in 201…