Hunt talks Japanese
JEREMY HUNT is to become the first British minister to deliver a speech in Japanese as he makes his first official visit to Japan since becoming Foreign Secretary.
Mr Hunt, who earlier this year accidentally told officials in China that his Chinese wife was Japanese, spent over a year in the country in his 20s learning the language. He will put his skills to the test when he addresses representatives of UK-Japan exchange programmes in Tokyo. MP TOBIAS ELLWOOD had to be ordered to stop first aid efforts to save stabbed PC Keith Palmer in the wake of the Westminster terror attack.
The former soldier held back tears as he relived the desperate attempts to save the 48-year-old’s life.
Giving evidence to the inquests into the victims’ deaths at the Old Bailey yesterday, the ex-Green Jacket recalled using his military medical training to lead the first aid given to stricken PC Palmer.
When an emergency doctor at the scene decided that the officer could not be saved, Mr Ellwood told him he would have to be ordered to stop giving help.
“I looked at him and said, ‘you’re going to have to tell me to stop. You must order me to stop. You’re going to have to make that decision.’
“He said, ‘sir, you have done your best. We do need to stop.’”
The Tory MP for Bournemouth East told how he ignored fears of a second terror attack as he went to help.
Mr Ellwood told the court: “My brother was killed in a secondary attack in Bali [a 2002 terrorist bombing in Indonesia] ... so I was very aware of that. I was concerned about what would happen if things were to ratchet up, but my immediate concern was that we had somebody who was clearly badly bleeding and needed assistance.”
During his rampage, attacker Khalid Masood, 52, killed Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, when he ploughed an SUV into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, before stabbing PC Palmer to death at the gates to the Palace of Westminster.
Mr Ellwood said he first became aware that something was wrong when he heard a “significant crash” followed by “screams” when the carnage unfolded on March 22 last year.
Mr Ellwood said he would have been behind Masood as he launched the attack if he had taken his usual route to Parliament.
“I know I would have stepped forward and I regret not having the opportunity to do so,” he said.
The defence minister then saw two waves of people with “panic in their eyes” as he made his way to Parliament through the underground passageway.
“They were shouting, ‘go, go, go, go’ and, ‘go back, go back,’” he said, before his attention was drawn to the area where Pc Palmer was attacked.
“My first observation was the number of armed officers that were pointing their weapons towards Carriage Gates,” he said.
“I have never seen so many armed officers with their weapons out in the Houses of Parliament.
“Some, I think, were crouching in positions of protection, but all were aiming their weapons towards Carriage Gates.
“I could see there were two bodies lying on the ground and activity around both of them... I said, ‘I’m medically trained, can I help?’ I recall one of them saying, ‘tell us what to do.’”