Hero MP battles to save police officer’s life.
Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative foreign minister, was praised as an ‘‘absolute hero’’ yesterday after he tried to save the life of the policeman stabbed during the attack on Parliament.
The Conservative MP attempted mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and applied pressure on the wounds to stem the blood flow to keep him alive.
Ellwood, a former captain in the Royal Green Jackets, attended the victim, Keith Palmer, 48, as he waited for medical staff and an air ambulance to arrive in Parliament Square.
He was later seen with bloodied hands talking to police officers near the scene before going back to the Foreign Office.
A source close to Elwood told The Daily Telegraph: ‘‘[He] tried to give mouth to mouth and stem blood flow from multiple stab wounds to the officer until the chopper and medics arrived’’.
There were reports last night that Ellwood ‘‘ran in [the] opposite direction to everyone else, he ran towards the injured police officer’’.
Photographs later emerged of Ellwood, dressed in a blue suit, helping medical staff and policemen treat the officer, who later died. A source close to the MP said he was ‘‘well but shaken’’.
Elwood, MP for Bournemouth East, has been Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office since July 2014, covering the Middle East and Africa brief.
He lost his brother Jon in the Bali terror attack in October 2002, which killed 202 people including 27 Britons.
MPs from across the political spectrum last night praised him as a ‘‘hero’’.
Sir Alan Duncan, a Conservative minister who works with Ellwood in the Foreign Office, said: ‘‘He has done very well. He was the right man in the right place.’’
Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: ‘‘Today, Tobias gave MPs a good name.
‘‘He was utterly heroic, pure and simple. He went above and beyond and did all he could to save a police officer.’’ - Telegraph Group