David Lammy's poignant reflection on killing of MP Sir David Amess

16 October 2021, 20:48

'Something has gone terribly wrong in our society.'

"Something has gone terribly wrong in our society" David Lammy told listeners, as he responded to the killing of MP Sir David Amess at his constituency surgery.

The Tory MP was stabbed to death during a constituency meeting in a church in Essex on Friday.

Sir David, an MP of more than 30 years' service, was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon.

The Met is treating what happened as a terror incident and said its early inquiries suggested a possible link to Islamist extremism.

Read more: Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer leave flowers to Sir David Amess after 'terror incident'

David said: "A lot of stuff that'll be said over the next few days about being kinder to MPs, gentler to MPs, about the nature of our discourse, about the seductions of extremism gripping young people in our communities... but the truth is, much of this was said after the murder of Jo Cox."

"Will we just sort of change the conversation in a few weeks time and move back to politics as normal and the toxic nature in our countries?" David asked.

Attacks on MPs cannot be 'accepted' like violence against women

"The ability to disagree agreeably and with civility has just disappeared," he continued.

Read more: Stop face-to-face meetings with voters until security review complete, MP requests

"You can have sharp differences of opinion, very sharp differences. You can also fear, by the way, things like nationalism or aspects of socialism. But you can have a civil conversation in a democracy and not resort to violence.

"And somewhere along the line, given the sustained killings... something has gone terribly wrong in our society it would seem to me."

Read more: Tributes left to Tory MP Sir David Amess as police declare terror incident