British MP David Amess is stabbed at a citizens’ clinic and dies. Apparently the perpetrator acted out of an Islamist motivation.
The British police assume an Islamist background in the fatal attack on the MP David Amess. “Initial investigations have revealed a possible motive in connection with Islamist extremism,” the authorities said on Friday. Meanwhile, British MPs called for an improvement in security for politicians at public events.
The conservative Amess was stabbed to death during a citizens’ clinic in a Methodist church in the small town of Leigh-On-Sea in his constituency east of London. Local police said they were alerted about the knife attack around noon and arrested a 25-year-old suspect on the spot. The 69-year-old MP was cared for by emergency doctors, but succumbed to his injuries.
Several British media outlets, citing unspecified sources, reported that the suspect was said to be a British citizen with Somali roots. The police initially gave no further details, the investigation was still in a “very early stage”.
David Amess had been in the House of Commons since 1983
The Brexit advocate and animal rights activist Amess sat in the British House of Commons since 1983. After the fact, the flags were raised at half mast in front of the British Parliament in London. On Friday evening around 100 people attended a memorial service for the father of five children in a church in Leigh-on-Sea.
There was great consternation among British politicians: this is the second murder of a politician in five years. In 2016, Labor MP Jo Cox was murdered by a right-wing extremist in the run-up to the Brexit referendum. Cox’s widower described the attack on Amess as “as cowardly as it gets”.
Several MPs called for security measures at public events to be improved and for measures to be taken against the increasing violence against politicians.
“We will take further action if necessary”
Labor MP Chris Bryant told the Guardian that “sensible action” is necessary not only in parliament, which is usually guarded, but also in constituencies. There, MPs often stayed in public places such as meetinghouses or on the street. “We don’t want to live in fortresses. But I don’t want to lose another colleague to a violent death.”
A spokesman for Interior Minister Priti Patel said she had “urged all police forces to review security arrangements for MPs with immediate effect.” Parliamentary President Lindsay Hoyle also told Sky News: “We will take further measures if necessary”.
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