An MP who avoided the ministerial greasy pole
One of Britain’s longest serving parliamentarians, Sir David preferred to get things done on the floor
‘We spent an entire afternoon turning the office upside down trying to find a missing invitation to a charity duck race. Nothing was more important’
‘He was enormously good and kind. An enormous animal lover and a true gent’
DAYS ago, Sir David Amess was signing copies of his memoir at the Conservative party conference and appealing for votes at the Westminster Dog of the Year Show.
A married father of five, he had been a Conservative MP for nearly 40 years, since his election in 1983. Only Sir Peter Bottomley, Barry Sheerman and Harriet Harman had served in the House of Commons for longer.
As MP for Southend West, Sir David, 69, was, above all, a constituency politician throwing open his weekly surgeries to local people so he could try to sort out their problems. Speaking
to LBC’S Iain Dale in May, Sir David – who held his seat with a comfortable 14,459 majority at the 2019 election – said: “The reason I have survived is every election I treat it as if it is still a marginal seat. Never, never take anything for granted.”
Tributes yesterday flowed in from MPS. Sir Peter, the Father of the House of Commons, told Sky News: “He was dedicated to his constituency, contributed heavily in Parliament … He is the kind of person who gave Parliament a good name.”
Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, said he “was one of the kindest, friendliest people you could meet, completely dedicated to serving his constituency”. Sir Roger Gale, a Tory MP who entered Parliament with him in 1983, said: “David died doing what David always did – looking after his constituents.”
Sir David never tried to climb the ministerial greasy pole, preferring instead to get things done on the floor of the House of Commons. Ed Holmes, now a ministerial speech writer whose first job after university was in Sir David’s office, told how the pair “spent an entire afternoon turning the office upside down trying to find” a missing invitation to a local charity duck race. “Nothing was more important,” he said.
Two of Sir David’s most significant achievements were the Protection Against Cruel Tethering Act (1988), and the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act (2000), both of which are on the statute book in his name.
His Twitter feed was full of meetings with local people and campaigns on animal welfare. He supported a ban on foxhunting as well as plans for prohibiting the importing of hunting trophies. He was also a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.
One of the first to pay tribute was Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s wife, who said: “He was hugely kind and good. An enormous animal lover and a true gent.”
Sir David’s interventions in the
Commons were often imbued with his rich sense of humour. In recent years, his questions to ministers had been punctuated by his long-running campaign to make Southend a city.
Sir David also campaigned for a statue to the Queen in his constituency as well as a memorial to Dame Vera Lynn on the White Cliffs of Dover.
Sir David celebrated his knighthood in 2015 by dressing as a knight at a local school in his constituency.
A lingering frustration was being duped in 1997 by Channel 4’s satirical TV programme Brass Eye about a fake drug called Cake.
Sir David published a memoir, Ayes and Ears: A Survivor’s Guide to Westminster, just under a year ago.
A devout Roman Catholic, Sir David and his wife Julia Arnold had a son and four daughters, the eldest of whom is the actress, Katie Amess. Born in Plaistow in the east end of London, the son of an electrician and seamstress, Sir David studied economics and government at the College of Technology in Bournemouth and worked as a teacher and recruitment consultant.
He was first elected to Parliament when he became MP for Basildon in the Conservatives’ 1983 general election victory. He later successfully sought re-election in Southend West in 1997 after a boundary review.
Outside Parliament, Sir David – with Penny Mordaunt, his Tory colleague – backed the Music Man project which arranged for 200 children and young adults with learning disabilities to play at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019.
In 2018, conversations with a constituent led him to launch a parliamentary group on endometriosis.
Sir David was a staunch supporter of the campaign to leave the EU. On Dec 30 last year, Sir David posted a photo of a cut-out of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher. He wrote: “Whilst Margaret didn’t live long enough to see this day, I am sure that she is rejoicing in heaven. At last we ‘got Brexit done’!”
‘We don’t want to be cowed or frightened into doing something different’
‘When you’re dealing with people who are very emotional, who feel like the system has let them down, often they’re looking for someone to blame’
British parliamentary system one of the most accessible in the world and that is because we want it that way. We don’t want to be cowed or frightened into doing something different.”
Another MP, who did not wish to be named, suggested politicians may need police escorts. “We are all exposed, and we all hold surgeries and everyone knows who we are and where we live. There is a serious problem,” the MP said.
“There is going to have to be a serious review on MPS security and some proper action. I don’t know if we need police officers there or security guards.”
In 2000, Nigel Jones, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Cheltenham, witnessed his assistant Andrew Pennington killed with a Japanese sword after Robert Ashman entered his constituency office.
Lord Jones, now a peer, needed 57 stitches on wounds to his hand from the assault. Mr Pennington, a local councillor, was posthumously awarded the George Medal for his attempts to protect the MP. Ashman was found guilty of attempted murder and admitted to Mr Pennington’s manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
In 2010, Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, was stabbed during his constituency surgery by Roshonara Choudhry, a British former student and an Islamic extremist. She was found guilty of attempted murder and jailed for life. Timms suffered lacerations to his liver and a perforation to his stomach.
In 2016, Jo Cox, the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, died after being shot and stabbed in Birstall, West Yorks. Thomas Alexander Mair, a 53-year-old Neo Nazi, was found guilty of her murder and other offences connected to the killing and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order. In 2019, Jack Renshaw, 23, was jailed for life for planning to murder Rosie Cooper, the Labour MP for West Lancashire.
Around the same time, Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, told a Commons committee that threats to MPS were at “unprecedented levels”, with the number of crimes reported more than doubling in 2018 – from 151 to 342.
It came after a parliamentary report found threats of murder, rape and other violence against MPS had become “commonplace” and had forced many to take extra security measures.
Last night, Jade Botterill, the former office manager for Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, said she had left her role because of the hundreds of death threats
the office received. Two years ago, a BBC investigation found more than 60 per cent of MPS surveyed had been in contact with police over threats they had received in the previous six months.dr
Lisa Cameron, a SNP MP, said she had put in place extra security so her children could play safely in her garden.
Conservative Scott Mann said someone threatened to nail bomb his office.
Sir Eric Pickles, former Tory party chairman, admitted surgeries did attract “obsessives”, adding: “It’s a part of the job. When you’re dealing with people who are very emotional, who feel like the system has let them down, often they’re looking for someone to blame. But if we close up shop, and disappear behind a security bubble, then it’s democracy itself that’ll be the lesser thing.”
Kim Leadbeater MP for Batley and Spen, the sister of Jo Cox, told Sky News she was “totally shocked” by what happened. “To think that something so horrible could happen again to another MP to another family. I’m scared and frightened and a real rollercoaster of emotions to be honest.”