A British Conservative MP, Sir David Amess, died after being stabbed several times on Friday 15 October during a parliamentary office he held at the Belfairs Methodist Church in his constituency of Leigh-on-Sea, in the east of London
“He was taken care of by the emergency services but, unfortunately, he died on the spot”police said of the MP. “A 25-year-old man suspected of the murder was quickly arrested after the arrival of the police on the spot and a knife was found”, she added in his press release, specifying that no other suspect was wanted. The reason for this attack is not immediately known.
David Amess, 69, was married with five children. He was first elected to Parliament in 1983 as MP for Basildon before representing Southend West from 1997. He held regular meetings with voters on the first and third Fridays of the month. The deputy had announced his presence at the permanence and the address of that in a tweet posted on October 12.
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his public engagement in 2015. David Amess was particularly attached to issues related to his constituency of Essex as well as to the animal cause.
Stupor and tributes
The flags of 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister, have been half-masted. On the news of the attack, Boris Johnson rushed back to London after a meeting in Bristol, in the west of England.
Political reactions immediately poured in, in a country marked by the assassination in the middle of the street in 2016 of MEP Jo Cox a week before the Brexit referendum by a neo-Nazi sympathizer. The Jo Cox Foundation has expressed its support for those close to David Amess.
The Jo Cox Foundation says its support for relatives of MP Sir David Amess https://t.co/baBEaZyXmz
“Horrible, tragic news”, reacted on Twitter the Minister of Transport, Grant shapps, who paid tribute to a “True parliamentarian who lost his life serving his constituents”.
The former prime minister Theresa May mentioned on Twitter “A tragic day for our democracy. My thoughts and prayers are with David’s family ”.
“Horrible and deeply shocking news”Labor Opposition Leader Keir Starmer tweeted, addressing his thoughts to the MP, his relatives and collaborators.
Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle said that over the next few days “We will have to discuss and consider the safety of MPs and what to do next, but, for now, our thoughts and prayers are with David’s family, friends and colleagues.”.
The French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clement Beaune, said to himself “Deeply shocked by the murder of the deputy”. “My condolences to his loved ones, our full support to the British people”, he wrote on his Twitter account.
Series of attacks on elected officials
The murder of David Amess follows several other attacks on British MPs, which claimed the lives of several of them. In 2010, a Labor MP, Stephen Timms, had been stabbed twice during a visit to his constituency by a student radicalized by online videos. In January 2000 Andy Pennington, assistant to Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones, had been killed while trying to protect Nigel Jones from an attacker who had come to his electoral office, armed with a sword.
Several MPs were killed during the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland. In July 1990, Conservative MP Ian Gow, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Northern Ireland and very close friend of Margaret Thatcher, was killed in a car bomb explosion outside his home, claimed to be an attack by IRA. In October 1984, it was the Conservative MP Anthony Berry who was killed in the IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, targeting Mme Thatcher during the Conservative Party’s annual convention.
In November 1981, the Unionist deputy Robert Bradford was shot dead by a commando of the republican paramilitary group IRA in his parliamentary office, in a community center in south Belfast. In March 1979, Airey Neave, a close advisor to Mr.me Thatcher, is killed in the explosion of his car as he leaves the parking lot of the House of Commons. This car bomb attack is claimed by the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), a paramilitary group.