Home Secretary orders immediate review of MP security
Home Secretary Priti Patel has ordered an immediate review of MPS’ security following the killing of Sir David Amess while meeting constituents.
Ms Patel met police and representatives of the security and intelligence agencies after the 69-year-old MP was fatally stabbed as he held a surgery in his Southend West constituency. She also spoke to the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.
“The Home Secretary has asked all police forces to review security arrangements formps with immediate effect and will provide updates in due course,” the spokesman said.
Earlier, ms pat el said she was “devastated” by the loss of Sir David in what she described as an “attack on democracy itself”.
“That he was killed while going about his constituency duties is heartbreaking beyond words. It represents a senseless attack on democracy itself,” she said in a series of tweets.
“Questions are rightly being asked about the safety of our country’s elected representatives and I will provide updates in due course.”
The Father of the House – the longest-serving sitting MP – Sir Peter Bottomley said: “I predict all over the country this weekend, next weekend and in the months to come MPS will hold advice sessions. That is what we do. “Often we are the last people who can help them when they are facing desperate troubles. Their needs, their interests come first.”
As well as the killing of Ms Cox in June 2016 in the days before thebr exit referendum, the attack on sir david carried echo es of two earlier incidents when MPS were attacked in their constituencies.
In May 2010, East Ham MP Stephen Timms was stabbed twice in the abdomen by Roshonara Choudhry, an Islamic extremist who claimed she had wanted “to get revenge for the people of Iraq”.
Mr Timms suffered serious injuries and according to police was “extremely fortunate not to have been killed”. He remains an MP. Nigel Jones, then MP for Cheltenham, was severely injured in January 2000 when he was attacked in his offices by a man with a sword.
Andrew Pennington, a county councillor, was killed in the same attack while trying to defend him.