Closing summary
On a moving day in Westminster, MPs and Lords have been paying tribute to Sir David Amess after he was killed on Friday.
- Prime minister Boris Johnson said his killing was a “contemptible act of violence striking at the core of what it is to be a member of this house” and during a session of tributes in the House of Commons, he said Sir David was one of the “nicest, kindest and most gentle” of MPs (see 15:46).
- Southend will become a city, meaning the success of a campaign Sir David had championed for his 38 years as a backbench MP.
- Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons that the attack was “an attack on our country and our way of life” (see 15:51).
- Conservative MP and Essex MP Mark Francois said Sir David was “the best father of the House of Commons that it will never have in an emotional tribute (see 15:59).
- The father of the suspect currently being interviewed over the stabbing has previously worked on “anti-extremism projects”.
- The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby told a remembrance service at St Margaret’s Church in Westminster that the “light” of the late-MPs public service “may flicker but it will never be extinguished” (see 18:36).
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Welby: 'light of Sir David Amess' public service must never be put out'
Welby continues, acknowledging the sacrifices made by MPs and dangers they face.
“The light lit by public service by you all and your colleagues must never be put out,” he said. “Even in the darkest moments, and especially for Julia and David’s children, this is as dark as could be. Light continues.”
He adds: “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.”
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Welby praises his “charity of heart” and says that his name will be remembered along with MPs Airey Neave, Robert Bradford, Anthony Berry, Ian Gow, Jo Cox who were killed while MPs and Andrew Pennington who died when the MP he was working for, Nigel Jones, was attacked.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is giving an address.
He said that those who respond to the “noble calling of being a politician in a democracy” enhances the country and criticises the vitriol politicians face.
“It is for that reason that across the nation we should be thankful to everyone who is here and throughout, especially in the House of Commons who give so much despite the cynicism, abuse and cruelty that they so often endure,” he said.
He added: “Too often when great tragedies happen, we have to reflect that the best seem to be the first to suffer.
“In this great tragedy There is a unanimous conviction amongst all who knew him that Sir David was of the best.”
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The service at St Margaret’s Church is now underway, after an opening from Rev Anthony Ball, canon of Westminster and Rector of St Margaret’s Church.
This has been followed by the singing of Abide with Me. The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will give an address later on.
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Others paying their respects in parliament include the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who is from Leigh-on-Sea and was a friend of Sir David Amess.
He told the House of Lords about the support he had been given by his friend, and his congratulations when he was appointed to the position in York.
“I reckon that now Southend has been declared a city today, forget about a statue of Vera Lynn at Dover, we are going to put a statue of David Amess at the end of Southend pier,” he added.
The final tribute from Rupa Huq, the Labour MP from west London, who said she was potentially the last MP who saw him alive – at the airport after returning from a visit to the Middle East.
Like other MPs, she praises his kindness and wit. “On the trip his million dollar smile that we’ve heard so much about won over everyone. One of these dignitaries I had to introduce him to, I said ‘He’s been a parliamentarian since the last century, but he never ages.’
“To another one, he said in his inimitable way, ‘Do you know what, I thought I had a lot of kids because I have got five, but you’ve got 24!’”
She adds that his death means everyone should be less cross, and more cross-party.
The session for tributes ends ahead of a remembrance service at St Margaret’s Church shortly.
Liz Saville Roberts, the leader of Plaid Cymru in Westminster says that people don’t often realise how much MPs of different parties work together.
She adds that it shows the importance of standing up for democracy.
“Democracy is what we have developed as the means of no longer attacking each other and using violence to achieve our aims.
“When we see this terrible and abhorrent death which has struck us so badly, that we remember that when we stand up for democracy we are standing up for that. For civility and good behaviour and for treating people properly, because historically the alternative has been violence and violence must never be allowed to succeed again.”
Kim Leadbeater, the sister of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox, has told said in the House of Commons that she spent a lot of time thinking about whether she should say anything at all because she did not know David Amess personally.
His family and friends remained at the forefront of her mind this afternoon, said Leadbeater, who represents the constituency of Batley and Spen.
“But sadly I know from my all too familiar experience that in reality there is nothing anyone can say to make things alright for them. But nor is it any use to stay silent,” she said.
For reasons that she would never wish on anyone, she said that she had a unique perspective on what those closest to Amess were going through and she wanted to send her love support and solidarity.
“I have blocked out much of what happened with Jo was murdered, but I remember very clearly the moment I took the phone call saying she had been attacked. I remember physically trembling and the visceral pain that overtook me and it breaks my heart to think that another family has had to experience that phone call and the night mare that follows.”
Stephen Timms, the Labour MP and former government minister who survived an attempt by a radicalised student to kill him, has told fellow MPs that they will “rightly reflect” on what they can do stop another MP being killed.
He wondered, for example, if they might ask the police to review their appointments list ahead of each surgery.
“But we must not give up on the accessibility of members of parliament, he added.
Roshonara Choudhry was jailed for life in 2010 with a minimum term of 15 years at the Old Bailey for the attack on Timms.
The 21-year-old was convicted on three charges after a short trial in which she ordered her defence team not to challenge the prosecution’s case because she did not recognise the jurisdiction of the British court.
The Old Bailey jury took just 14 minutes to return unanimous verdicts on the attempted murder charge and two counts of having an offensive weapon.
The Green Party confirmed it would not stand in the by-election in Southend West which will be triggered following the killing of Sir David Amess.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats have already indicated they will stand aside in the contest out of respect for the Conservative MP, who was killed on Friday.
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The former Conservative Party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, has been quoting the words of Jo Cox, who said that MPs are often more united by the things they believe in than necessarily divided.
“The fact is that we are in this place because we argue with each other about our ideas. The important feature of this is that we may disagree with our arguments but we don’t disrespect the motives of those who hold them.”
“And we need to be very careful. This is a lesson to us that we need to be careful here what we legitimise in what we say about our colleagues. They are not evil people. Nobody in this chamber is an evil individual.”
Theresa May said every MP has “lost a friend” as she paid tribute to Sir David, telling the Commons: “Laughter, service, compassion - these are three of the words that spring to my mind when I think of David Amess.
“Laughter because you could never have a conversation with David without laughter and smiling, whether it was because of one of the outrageous stories he was telling - perhaps about one of his colleagues or somebody else - but there were always smiles, always laughter, always fun around David.”
The Conservative former prime minister said Amess gave an “extraordinary” service to his constituents, adding: “I suggest to anybody who wants to be a first-class constituency MP that you look at the example of David Amess.”
May said Amess “made a difference to people’s lives”, before noting it was a “wonderful legacy” that Southend will be given city status and she urged MPs to “bring the same respect, decency and compassion that were the symbols of his life” when discussing issues.
She concluded: “His compassion made a difference to people outside of this House, his kindness made a difference inside this House. Our thoughts and prayers are with Julia and the family. Their loss is devastating.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, said that, like Keir Starmer, he wanted to reach across the aisle and say to every Conservative colleague: “We feel for you.”
Sir David Amess had always spoken with compassion when it came to representing people and had undertaken an eclectic mix of political campaigns which bridged the political divide, whether it was animal welfare or the fuel poor.
We don’t have to agree with each other across political divides, said Davey, “but we can learn to be kind and warm even when we disagree. David was.”
Davey reflected on an attack nearly 21 years ago on the then Liberal Demcrat MP, Nigel Jones, who was brutally assaulted during a constituency advice surgery.
“Nigel was saved that day by the bravery of his member of staff, Andrew Pennington. Andrew was a local councillor who Nigel told me used to work seven days a week for local constituents,” he added.
So as MPs reflected on the loss of David Amess and the threat to MPs, he asked them to remember that staff and many in public services faced abuse, threats and violence on a daily basis.
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The father of the suspect in the inquiry into David Amess’s killing, was a committed anti-extremist who risked his own life trying to thwart hate groups, his friends and colleagues have said.
The suspect, Ali Harbi Ali, had at one stage lived in Southend and at the time of the attack was resident in London. He was previously known to Prevent, the official programme to identify and help those deemed at risk of radicalisation.
His father, Harbi Ali Kullane, a former director of media and communications for a former prime minister of Somalia, is said to be in shock after the arrest of his son over the attack that shocked Westminster.
Kullane’s friends and former colleagues said he worked on projects against extremism in Mogadishu.
Abdirachid Fidow, who works for not-for-profit organisation the Anti-Tribalism Movement, said: “The father worked a lot of anti-terrorism projects in Mogadishu, fighting against al-Shabaab. He was someone who endangered his own life in public service fighting against extremism.”
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Harriet Harman, the Labour MP and mother of the house, said that Sir David Amess was one of the most dedicated but also “the most affable” of MPs.
He looked past party political loyalties to take up causes, she said, citing his recent campaign on behalf of young unmarried mothers whose babies were taken from them in the 1960s and 1970s.
“We have all got examples of where he has worked with us,” she said, adding that she would redouble her efforts.
Harman was followed by the father of the house, Sir Peter Bottomley, who said: “If we look around this chamber we will see the shields of those who have died, some in active service over the last world war.”
Bottomley added that a few of those gathered in the chamber today were present in parliament when Airey Neave was blown up.
Bottomley himself was part of the same football team as another MP who was killed, Robert Bradford, and he had also campaigned with a Tory colleague, Ian Gow, who was also among MPs who were assassinated.
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James Duddridge, who is currently Southend’s only MP in the wake of the killing of his friend and colleague, has told the House of Commons that he was above and beyond everything else a family man and “a very funny man”.
“He would often break through all the rules, cutting through pomp and ceremony and connecting with people, said the MP for the Rochford and Southend East Constituency.
Introducing Duddridge, Amess would always make up a story. At his annual Christmas dinner for people over the age of 100, he said Duddrige was a strictly come dancing winner.
Before there was ever a raffle, he would describe Duddridge as a “lottery millionaire”.
“My favourite ice-breaker was: ‘Meet James. He’s my neighbour. He’s recently got out of prison,” he added.
Duddridge went on to relay the story of the boiled sweet - alluded to by Mark Francois - which stemmed from a visit to the Vatican by Amess, a devout Catholic. People were getting things blessed, and with a sore throat, the MP for Southend West reached into his pocket and took out a boiled sweet.
“David got his timing wrong. The pope took the sweet, thinking it was a revered object to be blessed,” said Duddridge, mimicking the pope making the sign of the cross.
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Ian Blackford, the leader of the SNP at Westminster, said Sir David Amess was a “good and a decent man” who would always greet someone with a welcoming smile.
“For members and staff across this house it will take time to come to terms with the terrible shock of the senseless death of another colleague,” he said, adding that the family of Jo Cox were being forced to relive the nightmare of their experience again.
“Members of this house are being murdered for simply doing their job. That is the terrible reality we are faced with.”
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David Amess was probably the best father of the House of Commons that it will never have, Tory MP Mark Francois has said in remarks paying attention to his fallen friend.
In the last few years, he said, Amess had become increasingly concerned about the atmosphere in which MPs, and particularly female MPs, had to endure.
Amess wanted something to be done about it, said Francois, who added: “All of us, no matter where we came from, came here to try to help people.”
MPs were now being systematically vilified day after day, he said, telling MPs: “Enough is enough.”
He called for the forthcoming online safety bill to be toughened up with “David’s Law”, which would ensure that those in public life could no longer be vilified by those who hide behind a cloak of anonymity
Francois said he had to confess that he would like to drag Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and other social media chiefs to the House of Commons to account for a failure to act against online abuse.
“If the social media chief executives don’t want to drain the swamp of social media then let’s compel them to do so.”
“I am absolutely determined that he will not have died in vain.”
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N10: Boris Johnson and wife complied with Covid-19 rules during stay
Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie complied with coronavirus rules when a family friend stayed with them over Christmas, Downing Street has said.
Nimco Ali reportedly spent Christmas at No 10, despite London being placed under tier 4 lockdown restrictions in December 2020, preventing most households mixing.
Ali is understood to have stayed with the Johnsons, who at the time were engaged to be married, under the “bubble” arrangements, which allowed friends or family to provide informal childcare - the couple’s son Wilfred was eight months old at the time.
Johnson’s official spokesman said: “The prime minister and Mrs Johnson have followed the coronavirus rules at all times.”
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The House of Commons is united in its grief, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has said, adding that MPs were thinking again about their dear friend, Jo Cox.
“Civility mattes, and it matters in politics,” he added, telling MPs that they all had a duty to learn.
“We must not lose sight that David’s killing was an act of terror in our country,” he went on, citing the killings of Jo Cox and also PC Keith Palmer, the police officer who was murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament.
“A cowardly attack on a public servant doing his job is an attack on our country and our way of life.”
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PM: Southend to get city status following killing of David Amess
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, has announced that the Queen has agreed Southend will be granted city status following the killing of MP Sir David Amess.
Johnson said all MPs mourn with Sir David’s family, adding in the Commons: “Sir David was taken from us in a contemptible act of violence striking at the core of what it is to be a member of this house, and violating both the sanctity of the church in which he was killed and the constituency surgery that is so essential to our representative democracy.”
“But we will not allow the manner of Sir David’s death in any way to detract from his accomplishments as a politician or as a human being.”
“Sir David was a patriot who believed passionately in this country, in its people and in its future. He was also one of the nicest, kindest and most gentle individuals ever to grace these benches.”
MPs cheered in the Commons as the prime minister announced Southend “will be accorded the city status it so clearly deserves”.
Johnson said: “As it is only a short time since Sir David last put that very case to me in this chamber, I am happy to announce that Her Majesty has agreed that Southend will be accorded the city status it so clearly deserves.”
“That Sir David spent almost 40 years in this house, but not one day in ministerial office, tells everything about where his priorities lay.”
The prime minister said earlier in his speech: “The passing of 72 hours has done little to numb the shock and sadness we all felt when we heard of the tragic and senseless death of Sir David Amess. This House has lost a steadfast servant.”
“We have lost a dear friend and colleague, and Julia and her children have lost a loving husband and devoted father. Nothing I or anyone else can say will lessen the pain, the grief, the anger they must feel at this darkest of times.”
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The Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, addressing the house, said: “In nearly four decades in this house Sir David was second to none in his determined commitment to his constituent, firstly as member for Basildon between 1983 and 97, and since then as the member for Southend West. He was tireless in making sure the voice of Southend West was heard in this chamber. It’s difficult to believe we will not hear him make the case for Southend achieving city status.”
“On a personal level David was a lovely man. He was well liked by staff and members alike and during his almost four decades here he built a reputation for kindness and generosity.”
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Conor McGinn, the shadow security minister, said that online harms had been brought into focus in recent months, not just fraud but also terrorism.
He asked if the government was satisfied that they could address concerns in an online safety bill or if specific and more targeted action was required. If so, he pledged Labour’s support.
Damian Hinds, McGinn’s opposite number on the government frontbench, said “There are important steps in the online safety bill to do with illegal content and I think that improve our arsenal, our toolkit.”
But there were other issues that needed to be worked on, in particular the encryption on some platforms and their own “deliberate blinding to themselves”.
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Jess Phillips, Labour’s shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, paid tribute to Sir David Amess as someone who was kind but who was also funny “and didn’t take himself too seriously.”
She also paid tribute to James Brokenshire as a “good and kind” man who was also approachable as the immigration minister, she added: “ From this side of the house, who know how it feels to have someone fall, all our love through you Mr Speaker is with those family, friends and colleagues of those who have died.”
She went on - as part of questions to the home secretary - to ask if the government had decided to implement all of the recommendations of a HM Inspectorate report last month within the time frame laid out in order to improve the response against violence towards women and girls in the aftermath of the killing of Sarah Everard.
Rachel Maclean, the Home Office minister responding for the government, said the home secretary was considering the report in detail and had put in place some actions.
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A minute’s silence in honour of Sir David Amess was also observed outside the church where he was stabbed to death.
A police officer blew a whistle to signal the start and finish of the minute outside Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex.
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The House of Commons was packed for the earlier minute’s silence, but MPs appear to have left a space for where the MP for Southend West would might have been sitting.
Natasha Clark, Political and environment correspondent at the Sun, tweets:
Looks like colleagues have left a spot around where he usually sat in the chamber https://t.co/s6xVYTMI8M
— Natasha Clark (@NatashaC) October 18, 2021
We see far too much cruelty online, the home secretary, Priti Patel, has told MPs after the Labour MP Chris Bryant asked her what could be done to combat the “toxic” way of doing politics that had developed.
“In this place, I would use one word, and that is respect,” she added.
Bryant paid tribute earlier to David Amess by saying that, while he never persuaded him to support gay marriage, the Conservative MP always asked how his husband was.
Patel said of her late colleague: “His killing is a terrible and sad moment in our history, an attack on our democracy and an appalling tragedy. We are all thinking of David Jr and his family.”
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The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, has told MPs that they have lost two members since they were last gathered.
They were James Brokenshire – the former government minister who died at the age of 53 from cancer – and Sir David Amess, who was killed on Friday.
“The circumstances of Sir David’s death are despicable and raise the most fundamental issues about how members of this house are able to perform their vital democratic responsibilities safely and securely,” said the Speaker.
“In light of the ongoing police investigation I will not say more about the events, but I give the house my undertaking I will do everything in my power to ensure that these issues are treated with urgency and with the sense of priority that they deserve.”
Tributes would be paid to Brokenshire on Wednesday, he added. The prime minister is to move a motion to adjourn after Home Office questions, which are taking place now, and MPs will pay tribute to Amess.
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MPs hold minute's silence for Sir David Amess
MPs are holding a minute’s silence in memory of Sir David Amess.
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It’s been two years since a parliamentary committee found that the level of abuse faced by elected representatives and others in public life is “now so great it is undermining their engagement with constituents, how they express themselves on social media, and carry out their democratic duties”.
But as Paul Waugh, the chief political commentator at the iPaper, notes, gaps in security that were flagged up then still remain.
Today marks 2 years to the day since the Commons Joint Cttee on Human Rights warned of rising level of threats/intimidation to MPs. Yet some gaps identified then still remain. https://t.co/GML2epau3w
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) October 18, 2021
Giving evidence before that report by parliament’s human rights committee, Britain’s most powerful police officer warned that criminal abuse and harassment of MPs was running at unprecedented levels, reflecting “polarised opinions” in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.
The warning from Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police chief, was accompanied by official statistics showing that the number of crimes committed against MPs had more than doubled to 342 in 2018 from 151 the year before.
In its conclusions, the committee’s report stated:
MPs who do report threats or abuse to the police note a big variation in the response. While some MPs find the police concerned and helpful, others report the police showing more sympathy with the assailant rather than the MP victim.
An example of this which was widely circulated on social media was when Anna Soubry MP was harassed as she tried to make her way into parliament while police officers stood by without intervening.
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Family of Sir David Amess lay flowers at scene of killing
The family of Sir David Amess have comforted each other as they read messages on floral tributes left outside the church where the MP was stabbed to death.
His widow, Julia, wiped tears from her eyes on the visit to Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex on Monday morning.
The group of six, accompanied by the church’s minister Clifford Newman, spent more than 15 minutes looking through the messages that people had written.
They put their arms around one another and held hands at points. The group later bowed their heads and formed a semi-circle around the churchman as he gave a short private address.
The minister hugged Julia afterwards, speaking to other members of the group and shaking their hands as they departed.
Large piles of tributes - including flowers, heart-shaped balloons and framed pictures - have been left on either side of the front door of the church where Amess was killed on Friday.
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Lord Dodds, veteran DUP politician, said the murder of David Amess had caused shockwaves among politicians across the UK and was an attack on democracy.
“It appears completely random,” he told the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme.
“Why was it Jo Cox, why was it David Amess? Many hundreds of MPs hold constituency surgeries, particularly on Fridays and at weekends.
“This is an attack on democracy, not just an individual - people trying to silence and shut down political opinion and debate, democracy in the United Kingdom.”
Northern Ireland’s chief constable, Simon Byrne, has contacted elected representatives in the region to discuss their security following the murder of Amess.
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Downing Street has insisted that Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie complied with coronavirus rules following reports her friend Nimco Ali stayed with them over Christmas. Johnson’s official spokesman said: “The prime minister and Mrs Johnson have followed the coronavirus rules at all times.” Ali insisted: “I did not break any rules” after a report in the US in Harper’s Magazine claimed she “spent Christmas with the couple at No 10 despite pandemic restrictions on holiday gatherings”, PA reports.
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Brendan Cox, co-founder of Survivors Against Terror and the widower of Jo Cox MP, has written for the Guardian on how it is incumbent on all of us to reject polarisation , show decency and tolerance , and debate our opponents in good faith.
He writes:
After the horrific and senseless killing of David Amess on Friday, huge amounts of pain came to the surface in our family. The parallels are obvious and it has hit us all very hard. With Kim Leadbeater (Jo’s sister) now in parliament, it’s not just pain that the killing rekindles from the past, but real fear for the present as well.
This is felt by almost all MPs, almost all of their staff and every one of their families. This weekend there will have been hundreds of conversations asking the same question: is it worth it?
If the attack were a one-off, the question could be easily dismissed. But, coming just five years after Jo was killed, and after attacks on Stephen Timms and Nigel Jones – people are less sure.
But what really makes many wonder is not just the horrific killings but the day-to-day brutality with which our political debate is conducted, from increasingly regular death threats to online abuse. The police investigation team convened after Jo’s murder found, between 2016 and 2020, 582 reports of malicious communications and handled 46 cases of harassment. Nine cases were classified as terrorism-related.
You can read his full article here:
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Downing Street has said “everything possible” will be done to ensure MPs can work safely after the murder of Tory MP Sir David Amess.
Asked if Boris Johnson believes MPs’ security should be tightened, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
MP security is something that is always kept under constant review, rightly.
The review that the home secretary commissioned is ongoing so I’m not going to comment ahead of that but of course we will want to do everything possible to make sure MPs are able to carry out their vital work safely.
Boris Johnson believes the murder of Sir David Amess “cannot get in the way of democracy”, Downing Street said after suggestions MPs could end face-to-face surgeries with constituents.
But the prime minister’s official spokesperson said it was a decision for individual MPs when he was asked if surgeries should continue in person or move online.
The spokesperson said:
MPs may rightly be concerned about security, they’ve been contacted by police to discuss their activities and events so their arrangements can be reviewed.
But while individual arrangements should rightly remain a matter for individual MPs and police, the prime minister shares the concerns with a number of MPs and ministers that this attack cannot get in the way of democracy.
We will not be cowed by those who seek to divide us and spread hate and the PM has been struck by the bravery and commitment to serving constituents expressed by many MPs following Sir David’s death.
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An exiled Iranian opposition movement with friendly ties to Sir David Amess has been paying tribute to him at an event which was replete with pageantry.
Amess, who had been a vocal critic of the regime in Tehran and a supporter of its opponents based abroad, was described as “a great friend of the Iranian Resistance” by Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
Amess had been among MPs who had advocated for a UK ban to be lifted on the NCRI, which is based in France and Albania. The group was listed a terrorist organisation by the UK government until 2008.
Rajavi tweeted a video of the ceremony staged by the NCRI, which is also holding an event outside parliament in London at 2pm.
Paying homage to the great friend of the Iranian Resistance- Sir #DavidAmess -Ashraf 3 https://t.co/MSn0WzZFkY pic.twitter.com/5PzgXUoK0U
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) October 18, 2021
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Margaret Hodge criticises 'Bullingdon Club antics' of MPs' debate
The discourse in the House of Commons in recent years had become “too much like Bullingdon Club antics”, according to the Labour MP Margaret Hodge, as she reflected on language and atmosphere in which politics had been conducted in recent years.
Margaret Hodge told Sky News: “My life has changed in the 40, 50 years since I have been an elected representative, completely changed.”
“I just think of Labour party conference this year where I was advised before I went that I should not go unaccompanied, and that I should perhaps not use the front door as an entry into the conference centre. That was unthinkable 10 years ago.”
She said that one of her reflections on politics was the difference discourse in the House of Commons. Years ago in “big moment debates” about issues such as Iraq or Northern Ireland, they were still conducted in a civil manner.
Namechecking the private all-male dining club at Oxford University, whose past members have included Boris Johnson, David Cameron and George Osborne, she said: “It was about the intellectual power of the argument that mattered.”
“Nowadays when I go in for these big moment debates I always feel it’s too much like the Bullingdon Club antics rather than serious debate about difficult issues on which we may not agree, but on which we may have a civil and high calibre debate.”
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The Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who who was among Jewish Labour MPs subjected to anti-Semitic abuse in recent years, has said she believes it is important for MPs to remain “strongly connected” to their local community but approach to doing this had evolved over the years.
Her first death threat came in 1976, she told Sky News, adding that she had stopped doing constituency surgeries though this was not because of security. Rather, she felt that an “efficient and effective” casework system was of more value both to her and those in need of assistance from her.
“You can respond quickly and immediately to the issue. They don’t have to wait to see you,” she said. If people do eventually want to see, however, they still can. Other ways of connecting included street meetings and sending invites to coffee mornings and afternoons at which she went table to table over a three-hour period.
Hodge said in December the government must ban online anonymity or make social media directors personally liable for defamatory posts.
Research by Community Security Trust (CST), an antisemitism monitoring organisation, found there were about 90,000 mentions of Hodge’s name or Twitter handle, including retweets and shares, during October and November last year, though some were positive or neutral. It found that 22,000 individuals had been involved.
Hodge considered leaving the Labour party the day after an NEC panel agreed to replace Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension with a formal warning over his comments after publication of the EHRC report on antisemitism in the Labour party; he said the scale of the problem had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media”.
* This post was amended after it stated that Margaret Hodge had received 90,000 abusive social media mentions in a two-month period. Some were positive or neutral, according to the CST research.
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Joanna Cherry, a Scottish National party MP, has revealed that she considered quitting parliament because of the “unrelenting attacks” made against her.
She also suggested elected politicians may need to return to dealing with constituents either online or over the phone as they did at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In July a court ordered Grant Karte not to contact Cherry for five years after he sent threatening messages to her on Twitter. At the time Sheriff Alistair Noble said that the threat from Karte “carried implications of violence and one interpretation of what was said was sexual violence”.
Writing in the Daily Record newspaper of other threats she had received, she said: “On one occasion I required a police escort at my constituency surgery because of a death threat considered credible.”
“On another occasion a constituent behaved in such a menacing and threatening manner I and my office manager were in fear of our lives. We were so terrified that after he left we pushed all the furniture against the door of the room in the suburban library where my surgery was being held while we waited for the police to arrive.”
The Edinburgh South West MP said that these “unrelenting attacks do take their toll”, adding: “Recently I contemplated leaving elected politics due to the level of abuse and threats but I’ve decided to stay and fight my corner.”
But she insisted: “We must not let the bullies win.”
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More than 4,500 people have been held in immigration detention in the UK before being released into the community and only then identified as potential victims of trafficking, official figures for the past five years show.
Charities claim the figures demonstrate a “detain first, ask later” attitude that runs counter to the fight against modern slavery and suggest others are probably being deported without having been referred for support.
They fear the situation will be exacerbated by the nationality and borders bill, which they say makes it harder to identify victims.
Maya Esslemont, the director of the charity After Exploitation, which obtained the data, released to coincide with anti-slavery week, said: “It is terrifying that, as hard evidence shows just how often survivors are punished rather than supported, the government would put considerable resource behind making the trafficking decision-making process even stricter.
In its coverage today, the Southend Echo has been reporting on how Sir David Amess asked the prime minister to place a focus on ending “senseless” knife crime in the months prior to the Essex MP’s own death.
Amess raised the issue of knife crime in a parliamentary speech in March, when he paid tribute to Luke Bellfield, 18, who died from a stab wound to the heart in the district of Leigh-on-sea on February 26.
“This has been horrendous for his family and for his friends who have been left behind and my heart goes out to them all,” Amess told the prime minister.
“What more does my right honourable friend think the police, society, and parliament can do to make sure that in the future there will never be such senseless murders again?”
The newspaper also reported on how a large knife was being carried by at least one of two men attempted to smash their way into a takeaway in the town just hours after an MP was killed.
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The trade body for British manufacturers has hit back at ministers’ accusations that firms have relied for too long on cheap foreign labour, urging them to work in partnership with business instead of viewing it “as the enemy within”.
Make UK is calling on the government to recognise the challenges they are facing – including supply chain disruption and shortages of staff such as HGV drivers – rather than blaming them at a time when they are also facing soaring costs, including for energy and raw materials.
It is urging them to improve cooperation with industry to ensure companies can recover from Brexit and the pandemic, and enable firms to invest and grow over the next decade.
Welsh government in campaign to persuade young workers to stay
The Welsh government is launching a drive to persuade more young people to remain in their homeland amid growing concerns that the percentage of working-age citizens is dropping to worryingly low levels.
Ministers fear that unless the “brain drain” is stopped – and more talented people can be tempted in – within a few decades the country may struggle to pay the bills to look after its ageing population.
On Monday the economy minister, Vaughan Gething, will set out out a vision of the country’s economic future, with finding ways of retaining and bringing in talent at the centre of it.
Gethings said in an interview prior to the the launch: “It’s a really significant challenge for us. If we don’t have more people of working age in good work, we’ll end up with a smaller and smaller tax base.”
“We need to persuade more people to stay in Wales, more people to come back to Wales and more people to make Wales part of their story. We want to make best use of the talent we have as well as attracting people to Wales. People move to Wales to retire but it’s a great place to work as well.”
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Sir David Amess’s long-running campaign to make Southend a city has been gathering pace in the wake of his death after a Cabinet minister said he feels there is a “certain inevitability” to the move.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said on Monday that granting city status to the Essex town would be a “very fitting tribute” in the wake of the Southend West MP’s murder.
The Conservative was often seen in Westminster and on the campaign trail sporting “Make Southend a city” merchandise, including slogan-adorned baseball caps and face coverings.
Sir David’s family called for people to support the campaign in the wake of his killing at a surgery for constituents in Leigh-on-Sea on Friday.
Raab, the Justice Secretary, told LBC radio: “It feels like a certain inevitability about this campaign.
“Let me respect the mechanism for deciding it but say that I think it will be a very fitting tribute if it should come to pass.”
Southend is one of several towns competing for city status as part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations in 2022.
Meanwhile, a new graffiti artwork depicting the late MP has appeared on a wall in Leigh-on-Sea, the district of Southend which formed part of his constituency of Southend West.
Muslim Council of Britain to issue guidance on reporting hate crime
Britain’s leading Muslim organisation is to issue new guidance to help British Somalis and other individuals and mosques deal with any incidents of hatred emerging in the aftermath of Sir David Amess’s death.
Zara Mohammed, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that mosques in and around Southend were devastated by the killing of the local MP and “they had regarded him as a member of their family”.
“This is a heinous crime and we utterly condemn it,” Mohammed said. “Nobody in the local Muslim community could believe how anybody could brutally murder anyone, never mind Sir David, who was so engaged with them.”
But she added there was “definitely an apprehension for Muslim communities at this time” after it emerged that Ali Harbi Ali, the 25-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder following the fatal stabbing, came from a British Somali family.
Details about Ali remain scarce, although the investigation into Amess’s death at his constituency surgery on Friday lunchtime is being treated by police as terror-related following initial questioning of the suspect. (read on)
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Paul Brand, UK Editor at ITV News, has been out and about with the Labour MP, Siobhain McDonagh, and makes this observation about the conditions in which she and others are continuing to do their jobs.
The reality of an MP’s work.
— Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV) October 18, 2021
Out with @Siobhain_Mc this morning as she meets constituents. Just one of three meetings in public she has this morning.
There is no security. How would you practically keep this MP safe? Police escort flanking her? Would she seem as accessible? pic.twitter.com/BT4aDFZ8zY
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Remembering Sir David Amess as a “much-loved and respected politician”, the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush makes an interesting comparison in his ‘Morning Call’ email between the debate about MPs security now and the situation during the late 1970s and early 80s.
“It’s striking to compare the 2016-21 period, in which two MPs tragically lost their lives, and the 1979-84 one, in which three MPs (Airey Neave in 1979, Robert Bradford in 1981, and Anthony Berry in 1984) were assassinated, which resulted in major changes to security around the Palace of Westminster and major changes to security at party conference,” he writes.
“There has been some change of approach in terms of MPs’ security arrangements, but nothing to compare to the changes brought about in the 1980s, or even much of a debate about whether there should be a change of approach.”
He goes on to cite the comments on Sunday of the former Labour MP Paula Sherriff who told Sky News on Sunday that the police response to her safety concerns as a parliamentarian was inadequate.
Sherriff also spoke to the Guardian in 2019 about her decision to stand up in the House of Commons two weeks beforehand to beg Boris Johnson to moderate his “offensive, dangerous, inflammatory” language.
She told MPs that his language was being used in abuse and death threats to MPs, and that it was inappropriate given the murder of Jo Cox. Johnson faced criticism for replying to her: “I’ve never heard such humbug in all my life.”
Bush adds in his email today: “As MPs debate how to avoid a repeat of this tragedy, one item that is high on the agenda of many parliamentarians is working out why exactly not much has changed since 2016.”
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Justice secretary among MPs telling of threats
MPs have been speaking this morning about threats they have received in the course of their work, with the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, relaying how he has received at least three threats on “life and limb” in the past two years.
Raab, who is also the deputy prime minister, said that colleagues - and particularly women - have received “worse abuse” but that he has been the victim of three recent threats that required “intervention”.
“I have had three threats to life and limb over the last two years,” Raab told BBC Breakfast.
He told ITV that the most recent was “someone threatening to throw acid over me”.
While recognising the need for security, many MPs have been careful to warn against allowing the attack on Sir David Amess to create detachment from their constituents.
Raab said having plain-clothes police officers on the doors of surgeries with constituents could have a “chilling effect”, but he would understand if colleagues decided otherwise.
“We don’t let the terrorists win by creating wedges or walls between us and those who vote us in,” he told Sky News.
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Sir David Amess made no secret of where he was going to be on Friday 15 October: details of his constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist church were pinned at the top of his Twitter account several days in advance.
Among those who turned up, according to witnesses, was Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old British-born man whose family had fled to the UK from Somalia. Sources close to the investigation into Amess’s killing indicated on Sunday that Ali had booked an appointment to see the MP.
Before Amess met Ali he took his final Zoom call. It was a meeting with the celebrity PR Richard Hillgrove to discuss plans for the Children’s Parliament, an initiative that aimed to match 650 British schoolchildren with MPs to create a virtual parliamentary session on the eve of Cop26, the UN climate change conference.
Hillgrove’s daughter Lola had been matched with Amess, who visited her at school earlier in the week for photos to promote the event.
“He was in fantastic spirits, in a real ‘go get ’em’ mood, making loads of jokes,” said Hillgrove. “We were going through the running order for the event and he had promised to get Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, to do a video to promote it.”
The Zoom call ended at 12.02pm. Three minutes later, Amess had been stabbed multiple times in front of shocked aides. One of them called 999. Police arrived swiftly and arrested a suspect. He reportedly had made no attempts to flee the scene but was calmly sitting next to Amess’s body.
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Police arrest man over death threat to Labour MP Chris Bryant
Police have arrested a man on suspicion of sending a death threat to Labour MP Chris Bryant.
The MP, who represents the Welsh constituency of the Rhondda, said the level of vitriol was higher than he had known it in 20 years in parliament.
He told the PA news agency: “I got off a flight from Qatar, where oddly enough David Amess was as well - we have been looking at what’s happening to the refugees from Afghanistan who are all transiting through Doha.”
“I got back on Saturday and the first message in my inbox was this death threat, pretty clear, so I notified the police and they have taken action.”
Bryant said MPs had been subjected to a “steady stream of horrific abuse” in recent years.
“It’s pretty sour. It’s more sour now than I’ve known it in 20 years,” he said.
“Some of the political debates have been really vicious and sharp, especially over Brexit - though this has nothing to do with Brexit in itself - and for that matter the anti-vaxxers and so on.”
He added that his Rhondda constituency office has been targeted in the last year by an “angry mob” of anti-vaccine protesters, and the year before it was daubed with the word “traitor” over Brexit.
The former minister said he questioned “all the time” whether it was worth continuing as an MP but stressed that he felt a need to campaign on issues including tackling poverty and climate change.
“I hate poverty and inequality and I want to change the world,” he said.
“I think we can tackle climate change, I think we can save people’s lives from famine and illness. That is something worth devoting a life to.”
Although security in Westminster is tight, Bryant said MPs had to be part of their communities in the constituencies they represented.
“I don’t think you can change that,” he said.
“I have been doing my surgeries by appointment for some time now and we take all the sensible measures that the police advise.”
A South Wales police spokeswoman said: “South Wales police was called around 4.30pm on Saturday October 16 following reports of malicious communications being sent to a 59-year-old man from Porth.
“A 76-year-old man from Pontycmer, Bridgend, has been arrested on suspicion of malicious communications.“
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Boris Johnson to lead tributes to Sir David Amess in Commons
Boris Johnson will lead tributes to Sir David Amess in the House of Commons on Monday as debate rages about how drastically to step up security in the wake of the fatal attack on the Southend MP at his constituency surgery.
The attack has sent shockwaves through Westminster and reopened questions about MPs’ safety five years after the murder of Labour’s Jo Cox. The home secretary, Priti Patel, said on Sunday that she was considering offering MPs police protection at their surgeries, and the use of airport-style scanners was under consideration.
Asked how quickly such measures could be brought in, Patel told Sky News that all MPs were being contacted by their local police forces. “This isn’t a case of let’s wait for two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. These are immediate changes, and measures that are actively being put in place, and it starts with MPs.”
However, several MPs told the Guardian they had concerns that a police presence would deter constituents from attending surgeries or other public events.
The former Brexit secretary David Davis said: “The people who come to your surgery are people who are at their wits’ end: they’ve been let down by their employer or their doctor or the NHS or the welfare system, and they’re often very fragile. They might well be put off by a big burly police officer on the door.”
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Good morning on what is one of those particularly sombre days in British politics after the death on Friday of Sir David Amess, who was fatally stabbed in his constituency on Friday. He became the sixth British MP to be killed in office since the second world war.
MP are retuning to what is set to be a busy few months in parliament, with a major spending review on the horizon and the climate summit in Glasgow.
However, today is set to be dominated by tributes to Amess as well as the continuing questions that are being asked about the conditions in which MPs and their staff operate, their security and how to ensure that constituents can continue to have access to political representatives.
On Sunday night Amess’s family appealed for public unity, urging people to “set aside their differences and show kindness and love to all”.
In a statement, his relatives said they were “absolutely broken” but had drawn strength from the tributes to him from across the political spectrum.
MPs, friends and others have this morning been speaking about him ahead of plans to remember him today
• 2.30pm A sitting of the House of Commons, beginning with prayers, will have a statement from the speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle. The prime minister is to move a motion to adjourn after Home Office questions.
• 3.30pm Members of parliament will gather at the House of Commons to Amess.
• 6.00pm A service is to take place St Margaret’s Church, next to Parliament.
We will bring you live coverage of all of that, along with any other UK political developments today.
Comments will not be on for the blog today for legal reasons but you can reach me by emailing or on Twitter at BenQuinn75.
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