Leaders from all political parties gathered on Saturday to pay respect to a long-serving British lawmaker who was stabbed to death in a terrorist attack, according to police.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Labour Party, and Lindsay Hoyle, the non-partisan Speaker of the House of Commons, all arrived at the church where David Amess was stabbed many times while visiting with constituents. A 25-year-old British man has been arrested in connection with the attack.
The lawmakers paid their respects to the Conservative lawmaker, who has served in the British Parliament since 1983, by going up to the front of Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, a town about 40 miles (62 kilometers) east of London. They returned to their vehicles, escorted by a police convoy, after laying flowers.
The Metropolitan Police announced in a statement early Saturday that the act was terrorism and that the preliminary inquiry “has indicated a suspected motivation linked to Islamist extremism.” It didn’t go into any depth regarding how that assessment was made.
Officers were checking two locations in the London region as part of the inquiry, according to the police force.
The suspect, who was being held on suspicion of murder, has yet to be recognized. Though investigations are ongoing, police think the suspect acted alone and are not looking for anyone else in connection with the death.
Around noon on Friday, Amess, 69, was assaulted. Paramedics attempted but failed to save him. The guy was apprehended, and a knife was discovered.
During his long career, Amess, a popular lawmaker, did not serve as a government minister. He had a reputation as a fixer in Parliament, able to forge alliances across the political divide, despite being a social conservative on issues such as capital punishment and abortion.
He died doing what he loved best: assisting residents in his beachside Southend West electorate. In the United Kingdom’s parliamentary system, lawmakers maintain direct contact with their constituents, holding open meetings, or “surgeries,” on Fridays to hear their concerns.
Meetings are frequently held in public places, such as churches and community halls, and are widely promoted. Over Friday, Amess announced where he will be having his surgery on the internet.
Constituents’ concerns can range from big issues like the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak to more commonplace ones like requests for speed bumps on busy highways or a disagreement over the placement of a neighbor’s fence.
While members of Parliament may not have the authority to resolve issues brought to their attention, they can utilize their positions and influence to exert pressure on officials at the national and local levels to get things done.
“He was killed doing what he loved, serving his own constituents as an elected democratic member, and acts like this are absolutely wrong, and we cannot let that get in the way of our functioning democracy,” British Home Secretary Priti Patel said after paying her respects to Amess at the church where he died.
“All precautions are being put in place for the security of MPs so that they may carry on with their duty as elected democratic members,” Patel said, adding that she has met with the House speaker, police agencies, and UK security services.
Amess’ murder came five years after another MP, Jo Cox, was assassinated in her small-town seat by a far-right extremist. The death on Friday has reignited concerns about the dangers that politicians face while serving voters. When British politicians meet with their constituents, they are rarely escorted by police.
Face-to-face meetings with voters should be temporarily suspended pending the security review, according to Tobias Ellwood, a key Conservative politician who offered first aid to a police officer stabbed at the gates of Parliament in 2017.
Harriet Harman, a veteran Labour legislator, said she planned to write to Prime Minister Boris Johnson to encourage him to support a Speaker’s Conference to investigate parliamentarian safety.
“I don’t think we can just say nothing should change while we’re grieving over this terrible loss,” Harman told BBC radio. “I’m sure there is a safer method to conduct our business than having the police evaluating individual constituents who come to see us.”
The Speaker of the House convenes a Speaker’s Conference, which brings together political parties and authorities to make nonpartisan suggestions. They only happen once every ten years or so.
“Since Jo Cox’s awful death, we’ve had improvements in our home security, we’ve had changes in Parliament’s security, but we haven’t looked at the problem of how we go about doing that essential business in our constituency in a safe way,” Harman added.
