David Amess MP

[RoyalMush]

Very sad to see the news of this MP being murdered while doing a constituency surgery. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I’m just very shocked and disturbed for MPs and their staff that apparently little has changed since the murder of Jo Cox MP in terms of constituency security. What needs to change? How can we keep MPs accessible to their constituents (as they do really need to be) and also keep MPs and their local teams safe?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58930593

DH works for a female MP in a pretty rough area of London and is often at surgeries. It's not just the risk of attack at a surgery but MPs are subject to threats by post, email and phone pretty regularly. It's a dangerous job.

It's disgraceful that a man has lost his life simply for doing his job. A sad loss to his community and my heart goes out to his family and friends.

To be fair, many other jobs could be viewed as equally dangerous, but barely anything is done to address this. People working in Housing Departments get the most awful abuse for example.

I think some of Sir Amess' friends and colleagues have said that he wouldn't want extra security put in place or for MPs to become less accessible.
This is one of those topics that I think isn't best served by MN. A politician has been murdered. Out of respect for his family and friends, I think today should be about mourning.
Condolences to his family and friends.

I don't think being an MP is more dangerous than being , for example, a social worker or a paramedic or a care worker, but those occupations are expected to put up with it, while being paid a lot less.

If MPs think it is important to tackle violence against public servants, then they have the power to enact and fund more stringent measures against it - unlike social workers, paramedics or care workers. They haven't, so presumably they are, on balance, content with the current state of affairs.

@ElizaDarcysDeeds

I think some of Sir Amess' friends and colleagues have said that he wouldn't want extra security put in place or for MPs to become less accessible. This is one of those topics that I think isn't best served by MN. A politician has been murdered. Out of respect for his family and friends, I think today should be about mourning. Condolences to his family and friends.

Agree. Appallingly dreadful. he sounded a lovely man.

Absolutely awful, just read the news.

This is so dreadful. I hate that any person has been killed doing their job, talking to the public he represents. Appalling.

My sincerest condolences to his family, his friends, his staff and anyone who was at the office today. Just awful.

Many condolences to his family. What a terrible shock and loss for them all. What an awful violent senseless act.

Whilst I thoroughly disagree with his political stance, this is unspeakably awful. Wherever you stand politically, killing politicians doesn't solve anything: it only fuels the fires of division.

Just horrible news.

This made me cry when the news first broke- why, what a senseless act, truly horrifying and my thoughts go out to his wife and family.

I’m glad to read that Priti Patel immediately chaired a meeting of police, security and intelligence agencies and Commons' Speaker today and that they’ve called for an immediate review of security for MPs by local police forces.
news.sky.com/story/sir-david-amess-death-house-of-commons-speaker-to-look-at-safety-but-senior-tories-warn-against-putting-mps-in-security-bubble-12434708

As quoted in this article, some Parliamentarians are making the comparison to the risks faced at work by other public-facing professionals like nurses, doctors and teachers too. These are all public service jobs with dangers and it’s still really tragic and disturbing when anyone is attacked or killed just doing their job, as has happened today.

It's awful but I'm not sure anything specific has to 'be done' about attacks on MPs. A lot of people are saying 'What has this country come to?' but it's a bit early to say if this is anything about the state of the country, or a single disturbed person.

RIP - I do not agree with all his stances, but clearly he tried to do good for women with edometriosis and to prevent fuel poverty. Like most people, yes, including politicians, he was not one-dimensional and obviously he was a husband and father too, so it's incredibly sad.

I’m on the other side from him politically too, have always known of David Amess as he’d been an MP for so long. This is an absolutely shocking end to a career of representing his constituents. RIP. [Flowers]

Condolences to his family, friends, colleagues and constituents.

However, I find it a bit unpalatable that there were immediate demands for a crackdown on knife crime and a need for increased security for MPs from the Home Secretary, Commons Speaker and others. There were over 220 homicides and over 4000 hospitalisations last year from knife crime, and none of these caused the same reaction. It seems that these victims (individually and in total) were far less important. Ironically, Sir David himself spoke on this subject in the commons and was practically ignored.

This follows after the conviction of Sarah Everard's killer, which only became a big deal to the Speaker when it was revealed her murderer had worked a few shifts at the Palace of Westminster and so an in-depth inquiry was needed. It seems that none of his terrible behaviour mattered, but the fact he worked five shifts in six months at Westminster needed an immediate demand for the Met Commissioner to explain.

Annd Widdecombe who was a personal friend was on TV earlier and said he would hate this to be the start of screens and so on at MP surgeries.

@jcyclops I couldn’t agree more.

Appalling and senseless.

I'm trying not to think too much about it until we understand more about the murderer, but it's hard to avoid feeling angry that he died simply for doing his job.

What a tragedy.