'He was a warm-hearted man with a great sense of humour, a passionate advocate for his constituency'

MP for Ellesmere Port

THE nation has been mourning someone who was generally regarded as amongst the best of politicians. Not necessarily the most well known, but certainly amongst the most admired. Sir David Amess MP, who tragically died from multiple stab wounds on Friday, was well liked and respected on all sides of the House of Commons.

He was killed while serving his constituents . He was a warm-hearted man with a great sense of humour, a passionate advocate for his constituency and for a number of important causes he felt passionately about such as fire safety and animal welfare. He was a genuinely decent man who epitomised what the best MPs should be. His ability to find common cause with MPs from all parties in a non-partisan way ensured he got things done.

Media coverage of Conservative MP Sir David’s murder in a Leigh-on-Sea church hall in Essex has been linked, totally understandably, to the murder five years ago of another much-loved figure, Jo Cox, in her Batley and Spen constituency in Yorkshire where her sister, Kim Leadbeater, is now the Labour MP. However, the fact is that attacks on Members of Parliament and their staffs are nothing new. Those with longer memories can date back to January 2000 when Councillor Andy Pennington was stabbed to death as he tried to protect the then Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones from an attacker who, armed with a sword, stormed his constituency office during a constituency surgery in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. The MP himself received lacerations after fending off blows from the swordsman.

Sir David’s tragic death will also spark dreadful memories for my Labour colleague Stephen Timms MP who was stabbed in May 2010 during a constituency surgery in East Ham in London.

Such atrocities place MPs in a true predicament. We have to be conscious at all times of the need to protect ourselves and those who work for us and support us as volunteers, but the last thing we want is to be separated from our constituents – the very people who elect us into office in the first place. It is important for us as MPs to keep in contact with residents in the communities we serve and to be as accessible to them as possible. There will be another review of security arrangements for MPs now and the measures required will vary according to who the MP is, but I suspect no measure will be able to entirely eliminate the risk of a determined individual.

It is thankfully not a particular issue for me but some MPs – and shockingly women MPs in particular – routinely suffer huge amounts of hate mail which include threats to kill them. Indeed the day after Sir David died, police had to become involved after Chris Bryant, my Labour colleague in the Rhondda in Wales, received a death threat from a pensioner.

It is beyond doubt that matters have worsened now so many of us have access to social media. All too often keyboard warriors are prepared to put into print something they would never say to a persons face. That along with newspaper headlines and occasionally comments from politicians themselves creates a climate of hostility that nobody going into politics to serve their community or country should have to tolerate. We should all reflect on what we can do to encourage greater respect and tolerance for opposing views.