Defiant MPs keep their surgery doors open as calls grow for police guards
MPs continued to hold constituency surgeries as normal yesterday, while debate raged over whether Parliamentarians should be given police guards following the murder of Sir David Amess.
Defiant Alec Shelbrooke, Tory MP for Elmet and Rothwell, who held a surgery at a local supermarket yesterday, said: ‘We cannot let events like this diminish the deep relationship between an MP and their constituents.
‘This is a relationship I value deeply: I want my constituents, regardless of whether they voted for me or not, to be able to approach me in the street, in the pub, at the supermarket or at one of my surgeries.’
Tory former Cabinet Minister David Davis said suspending public meetings would be ‘a terrible reflection of what David stood for’.
Robert Largan, Tory MP for High Peak, tweeted: ‘I’ll keep on doing my weekly surgery, all year round, whatever the weather! We all need to stand up for our democracy!’
Dr Kieran Mullan, the Tory MP for Crewe and Nantwich, tweeted: ‘Surgery today, we must not let people force us to do things differently. David would not have wanted that.’
Some MPs sounded a more cautious note, with the Tory former Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood calling for a pause of faceto-face meetings until a safety review had been completed. Labour MP Harriet Harman called for an official review of MPs’ safety.
Conservative MP Bob Blackman warned that MPs would now be ‘wary’ of what they do in light of Sir David Amess’s death.
He said he began having his surgeries virtually or by phone when coronavirus struck, and has no plans to resume them in person.
He told the PA news agency: ‘I haven’t contemplated a return because I was required to shield. I’m not running any risks on Covid, even though I’ve been vaccinated. It’s like everything else, you’ve to think about your vulnerability.’
Tory MP Andrew Percy told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Putting a police officer outside every MP’s surgery would be a very big use of police resources. We should think very carefully before we decide to do that.
‘There’s only so much protection you can provide to an MP who lives locally, shops locally and uses other local facilities.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel said measures would be put in place to ensure MPs could meet constituents safely.
She urged MPs not to be ‘cowed’ by those threatening to ‘stop us from functioning’.