Let a new civility be this good man’s legacy

THE sight of Boris Johnson and Sir Keir Starmer standing shoulder to shoulder in tribute to murdered Conservative MP Sir David Amess this weekend was a muchneeded reminder that politics can be robust and adversarial without being poisonous.

Far too often the shrill voices of hatred and contempt have drowned out civilised political debate.

Particularly for those on the Left, it hasn’t been enough to say the Tories are wrong or misguided. They must be portrayed as being irredeemably wicked – or ‘scum’, to quote Labour’s graceless deputy leader Angela Rayner.

Such tribal vindictiveness is deeply corrosive to the body politic. And profoundly dangerous.

If Sir David is to be honoured in death as he was loved and admired in life, this should be a moment for all Parliamentarians to pause, reflect and reset.

Passion and belief are, of course, crucial to political discourse. But they must be tempered by tolerance of opposing points of view. In a civilised society, bile and blind fury have no place.

We don’t yet know, of course, whether there is a direct line between the coarsening of British politics and the frenzied stabbing of Sir David at his constituency surgery last Friday.

But it does show – along with the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox and other attacks in recent years – that in the minds of some deranged individuals, MPs have become legitimate targets.

Allegedly committed by a young British man of Somali heritage, Ali Harbi Ali, this latest appalling attack is being treated by police as an Islamist hate crime.

Disturbingly, the suspect is understood to have been flagged as a potential terror risk some years ago and took part in a mentoring and de-radicalisation course under the Government’s Prevent strategy.

So was he monitored afterwards? Were his details recorded by the police? Were they flagged up to the security services? Or was he deemed to be of so little risk that he simply fell off the radar? These are stark and uncomfortable questions which demand immediate answers.

The Prevent strategy, set up 14 years ago, is intended to identify and de-radicalise potential terrorists. But its history has been chequered, to say the least.

Ahmed Hassan, the Parsons Green Tube bomber, and Khairi Saadallah, who stabbed to death three gay men in a Reading park, passed through its hands, raising questions over whether its £40million annual budget was well spent – or good money wasted.

And what now for the security of MPs going about their constituency work? The police and Commons authorities are carrying out a review, and in the meantime, extra protection is being considered on request.

These are sensible and necessary measures. It must also be remembered, though, that access to our governing class at local level is one of the fundamental tenets of British democracy. It cannot simply be abandoned.

As a quintessential constituency MP, Sir David would surely have understood that better than anyone.

But for all its political and legal dimensions, this hideous killing is first and foremost a family tragedy.

This was a thoroughly decent man, interested only in serving the public. He didn’t vie for high ministerial office, preferring to fight battles and raise issues on behalf of his constituents.

He was a man of faith, kind and courteous with a strong sense of duty. He made friends across the political spectrum.

Above all, Sir David was a family man, dedicated to his wife and five children. For him to be torn from them in such a random, brutal way is utterly heartbreaking.