Sir David Amess 'moved surgery to church so more constituents could attend'

15 October 2021, 17:30 | Updated: 15 October 2021, 17:33

Southend Councillor reacts to death of MP Sir David Amess

By Tim Dodd

MP Sir David Amess moved his surgery to the church where he was fatally stabbed to make it easier for more of his constituents to attend, a Conservative councillor told LBC this afternoon.

The Conservative MP, 69, was stabbed to death today at a constituency surgery at a church in Essex.

The air ambulance flew to the scene at Belfairs Methodist Church, with armed police and forensics officers also in attendance.

David Garston, Councillor for Prittlewell in Southend-on-Sea told Eddie Mair on LBC: "The problem was that whilst the offices had extra security.. a lot of extra security was put in to guard the office where he used to have his surgery... because a lot of elderly people wanted to come to his surgeries, and people who were disabled etc. couldn't necessarily make the journey to where his office was, he changed his surgeries recently and decided to have one in every part of the constituency.

"So of course having one in the church hall today, the security that would've been there at the main office wasn't there."

Flowers being laid in tribute to Tory MP David Amess

When asked what can be done to ensure the security of MPs when meeting constituents, Mr Garston said: "It's such a difficult balance, because we as elected councillors need to see the public as well.

"We need to find out what they need, what their thoughts are. I mean we've got huge decisions coming up in Prittlewell at the moment.

"You can't lock yourselves away in a cupboard. So we've always gone out in numbers, I would never go out now and see somebody without taking another councillor with me, but it's difficult to know what else to do."