The life of an MP is a varied one. I used to joke about being in shock at winning at all, but I’ve been elected for a year now so should have got over it. And there are bigger things to get over now – the tragic loss of my friend and colleague Jo Cox, after what appears to have been a senseless attack, is beyond appalling.
I first heard the breaking news as I was leaving Westminster to address a long-planned prize-giving for the National Citizen Service in Ealing town hall on Thursday afternoon. I honoured the commitment but could think of nothing else throughout the event and alluded to the incident in my speech as I was simultaneously being issued with advice from our police borough commander about the threat level against me being reviewed. It was after I’d left the stage that I heard the worst.
Many of us in the 2015 Labour MP intake comforted one another on Thursday. It still seems surreal that we are talking about Jo – one of the nicest people you could ever meet (and not all MPs are) – in the past tense. Nobody should be killed while doing their job. It is testament to what a loyal public servant she was that this should have happened as she was leaving her surgery. As MPs, we all do them – mine was yesterday afternoon after I attended an event for national care home open day.
I’ve had some hairy moments in my surgery in the last year, but I was numbed with shock at this week’s news. It felt like nothing else, the referendum, the England match, mattered.
The fact of the matter is, MPs have a terrible press. I wasn’t there when the expenses scandal broke, but as a civilian, as a citizen, it looked awful, and thankfully the excesses of that discredited system have been curbed.
There are many of our number who do not help our cause but the yah-boo of prime minister’s questions, the jeers and trading of insults across the chamber, are just one part of our job. On the other hand, and less high profile, in committee MPs often work along cross-party lines to hold the government to account. This is all in order to get better legislation, as every one of us wants the best for our constituents and the country as a whole.
Yesterday morning I took part, alongside the mayor of Ealing, in an event to mark democracy month at Derwentwater primary school in Acton, west London. We gave presentations to years 1 to 6, and the pupils participating were buzzing. The Q&A session was a big hit. How did we get where we were? Was the mayor’s chain real gold?
I tried to point out that at their age I’d been at an equivalent school in Ealing and that there was no reason why they couldn’t be MP or even prime minister one day.
There were so many questions that we were stopped by the bell in each of the three sessions, to collective disappointment. “Don’t worry, we’re always around,” I assured pupils with outstanding questions. “You can email us any time or come to a surgery.”
Only one boy asked about Thursday’s terrible events. I replied that Ealing police had advised me this had been an isolated localised incident and that I should go about my daily business: so it was the school that morning, a care home next, then the surgery.
The first person who arrived was a young man who lives in supported housing; straight away he offered his condolences over what happened to Jo. Throughout the day I had people tweeting #ThankYourMP, and my inbox is full of people emailing their support, even when they don’t agree with me. One said: “I just want to take a moment to thank you for all the hard work you do and for standing by your convictions. Thank you for caring, thank you for trying and thank you for doing such an important and often thankless job.”
The events of Thursday were shocking and have appalled the world. An attack on an elected representative is in some ways an attack on democracy. But given that my office has undertaken some 5,000 pieces of individual casework since May 2015 we need to keep the service open for the urgent deportations, evictions and planning applications that come our way as a busy constituency. This will only increase with this government’s policies. If the horrendous events of yesterday hadn’t happened, I know Jo Cox would have told me to carry on and do the same.
