City status for Southend in honour of MP’S long campaign
Prime Minister leads way in Commons as MPS from across parties pay tribute to ‘dedicated’ politician
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA will be made a city to honour the late Sir David Amess, who had spent decades campaigning for the change.
Yesterday, Boris Johnson announced in the Commons that the Queen had agreed to the change following the decades-long campaign by the Southend West MP.
The Prime Minister noted his tireless campaign for city status for the Essex seaside town. He said he was “happy to announce that Her Majesty has agreed that Southend will be accorded the city status it so clearly deserves”. Mr Johnson led tributes to the late MP, who was stabbed to death at his constituency surgery last Friday, telling the Commons “this country needs people like Sir David, this House needs people like Sir David”.
Yesterday evening a service was attended by peers and MPS at St Margaret’s Church in Westminster led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Meanwhile Sir David’s family, including his widow, Julie, visited Belfairs Methodist Church to see flowers and messages left at the scene of his death.
It was also claimed last night that Ali Harbi Ali, 25, who is in custody suspected of murdering Sir David, tricked the MP’S constituency office into giving him an appointment by falsely claiming he wanted to discuss healthcare.
The announcement on Southend’s city status has been made ahead of the Queen officially designating new cities to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee next year. In a statement released by Sir David’s family after his death they called for people to support the campaign, which he had been driving since 2000.
Sir David often raised the campaign for Southend to be given city status during Prime Minister’s Questions or in parliamentary debates. In one debate, he argued that city status would help the UK recover from the pandemic.
“Our country and the whole of the world will need to rebuild itself and particularly in terms of the economy,” he said. “Southend becoming a city would be of enormous benefit in terms of attracting investment post-brexit. There are many potential building projects and renovations that would fit perfectly into Southend becoming a city,” he said.
“Our unique position, lying along the magnificent Thames Estuary, should be capitalised and made the most of.”
Just last week, Sir David told BBC Essex that his plan was “to wear them down until they say yes”. He said: “If they’re sick to death of hearing all the reasons why Southend should become a city then they should grant it to us.”
‘Compassion made a difference to people outside this House, his kindness made a difference to people inside this House’
‘[He was] a committed public servant, of kindness and a man whose decency touched everybody that he met’
SIR DAVID AMESS died doing what he believed in, Boris Johnson told MPS yesterday as he said Britain needed more politicians like him.
The Prime Minister led more than 30 MPS from across the House of Commons in paying tribute to the late Conservative member for Southend West who was stabbed to death in his constituency surgery on Friday.
Sir David had refused to accept that MPS should be “deterred from speaking face to face with constituents” after the murder of fellow MP Jo Cox in 2016, and previous attacks on Stephen Timms and Nigel Jones. Mr Johnson continued: “And so when he died, he was doing what he firmly believed was the most important part of any MP’S job: offering help to those in need.”
Reading from a jet black folder with a gold prime ministerial crest on the front, Mr Johnson added: “This country needs people like Sir David, this House needs people like Sir David, our politics needs people like Sir David.
He said he was: “Dedicated, passionate, firm in his beliefs but never anything less than respectful for those who thought differently.
“Those are the values he brought to a lifetime of public service. There can be few among us more justified in their faith in the resurrection and the life to come.”
MPS sat in complete silence, side by side on the green benches, almost all dressed in black and white, many dabbing away tears.
Looking on from the public gallery was Harvey Proctor, who had been Conservative MP for Basildon until 1983 when he handed the seat to Sir David.
Theresa May, the former prime minister, told the Commons that “anyone who wants to be a first-class constituency MP [should] look at the example of David Amess.
“He was deeply embedded in his constituency and, as we all know, championed it on every possible occasion.
“David Amess made a difference. His compassion made a difference to people outside this House, his kindness made a difference to people inside this House.”
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee of backbench MPS, said that “people across the country could sense the goodness, the kindness, the decency” of Sir David.
Many of the most affecting speeches came from Conservative MPS with seats in Sir David’s home county of Essex.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Conservative party leader from 2001 to 2003 and MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said Sir David had shown other MPS how to work on a cross-party basis to get things done.
He said: “We cannot get things done by ourselves so we form alliances. He was the architect of this.”
Mark Francois, the Rayleigh and Wickford MP, described Sir David as an “animal-lover, a patriot, a Thatcherite, a Eurosceptic, a monarchist and a staunch Roman Catholic”.
Mr Francois said Sir David had become increasingly concerned about the “vile misogynistic abuse” female MPS had to endure online.
He called for the Online Harms Bill, which is currently before Parliament, to be toughened up with “David’s Law” to protect more people in public life to ensure he did not “die in vain”.
“We may disagree, sometimes passionately, about how best to help people. But surely we can agree that we came here to try, for which we are now vilified, day-to-day,” he said.
“And I say simply, enough is enough, for we all have at least one thing in common, we are legislators. So I humbly suggest we get on and do some legislation.”
While people in public life can be subject to criticism, “they can no longer be vilified or their families subject to the most horrendous abuse, especially from people who hide behind a cloak of anonymity”, Mr Francois said.
He added that he would like to “drag Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter to the Bar of the House, if necessary kicking and streaming, so they can look us all in the eye and account for their actions, or their inactions, that make them richer than they already are”.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, Tory MP for Harwich and North Essex, told MPS that it would be the greatest tribute for Sir David if MPS “engaged in the political battle” and made “kindness our resolution from this day forward”.
Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, described Sir David as “a passionate believer in Britain, a true patriot, he was a royalist [who] was never afraid to fly
‘[He] would always greet you with a welcoming smile whenever you met him. May his gentle soul now rest in peace’
the flag and to champion Great British values.
“He was a Christian and was proud to be a Christian and uphold the Christian heritage of this country.”
There were warm tributes from opposition parties too.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, described Sir David as “a committed public servant, of kindness and a man whose decency touched everybody that he met”.
He added: “Let us recommit ourselves to standing for the things he stood for, the things extremists will never comprehend – for decency in our disagreements, for kindness in our hearts, for our great democracy, and for the hope that through it we can make our country and our world a better place.”
Labour MP Harriet Harman, the Mother of the House who had laid flowers in memory of Sir David at the gates of Parliament, described him as “one of the most dedicated but also the most affable of MPS”. She said: “He looked beyond party differences to work with so many of us on a multitude of issues of common concern and that’s why there are tears on all sides of the House this afternoon.”
Kim Leadbeater, the sister of Jo Cox, told how she “remembered physically trembling and the visceral pain” she felt when she was told that Mrs Cox had been attacked.
She added: “It breaks my heart to think that another family has had to experience that phone call and the nightmare that follows. It is a rollercoaster of deep trauma that no one should have to experience.”
John Cryer, Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, added: “There are profound and visceral issues that divide parties in this place and individuals. They are minuscule compared to what divides us from the forces of darkness who brought this about.”
Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP in Westminster, said Sir David was a man who “would always greet you with a welcoming smile whenever you met him”, adding: “May his gentle soul now rest in peace.”
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, added: “Every community needs champions like David. The point is we don’t have to agree with each other but we can learn to be kind and warm even when we disagree.”
After two hours of tributes, the House of Commons was adjourned.
Many MPS and peers headed over the road to a special memorial service at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, where Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told them last night: “He was of the best.”
He added: “The light that David held out through his service – inspired by his strong personal faith – that light held by all in public service, may flicker but it will not be extinguished.
“In the face of such injustice, it must be for all of us to determine to shine that light all the more brightly.”