Daughter of MP murdered five years ago says politicians still at risk
Daughter of MP murdered five years ago says politicians still at risk
By Olivia Ireland, BBC News
4 October, 12:59
The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess says politicians are still at risk and questioned if anything has changed five years after her father’s death.
Katie Amess told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg what happened to her father “wasn’t an isolated incident, we are seeing increased threats towards members of parliament”.
Sir David was the Conservative MP for Southend West when he was stabbed multiple times while holding a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in October 2021.
The government commissioned a review into his death in August, to identify lessons to be learned and recommend steps to minimise the risk of future tragedies.
The review is being led by former Conservative justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland, with the aim of reporting within six months.
The safety of politicians has been a prominent issue in recent years since the death of former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe in July this year, Sir David’s murder in 2021 and Labour MP Jo Cox’s murder in 2016.
The five years since her father was killed have been “absolutely devastating and heartbreaking”, his daughter told Kuenssberg, adding: “It’s a very, very real situation that we’re living with.”
She has previously called for a public inquiry into the safety of politicians so people can have “the full facts to hand, full openness, honesty, and transparency”.
The nearing anniversary of Sir David’s murder comes after the man accused of murdering Widdecombe was also charged with preparing acts of terror, including against Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
Amess, who knew Widdecombe as a family friend and called her Aunt Ann, said: “It’s absolutely so tragic and heartbreaking that now she isn’t here either.”
She added: “My dad was murdered five years ago so if so much has changed why are we still seeing other members of parliament or former members of parliament being targeted like this.”
Widdecombe was not a sitting member of parliament when she died, but was a member of the Conservative Party and the member for Maidstone and the Weald from 1987 to 2010. She became a member of Reform UK in 2019.
Separately, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch confirmed to the BBC the man who pleaded guilty to sending her threatening messages also sent them to her family.
Kieran Kyle, 43, pleaded guilty to two counts of sending communication of an indecent or offensive nature to Badenoch and her family when he appeared in court in September. He will be sentenced on October 29.
“I just think that whether it’s Nigel Farage, or even Keir Starmer who had his home fire bombed, that there is a threat to politicians that is increasing and we just need to crack down on this,” she told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
Asked how Badenoch coped with threats to her safety, she replied: “it’s really tough, but you just have to get on with it”.
Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice, who told the BBC he also experienced threats to his safety, told the programme “this was far from where any of us want to be”.
“We have to find the middle ground where we’re accessible but we’re protected and in the overall scheme of things if that requires a bit of extra taxpayers’ money, I think hopefully voters would say ‘yes’.”
Amess said her father “loved meeting people”, saying “he was one of the easier members of parliament to take a meeting with because that’s what he lived for – to meet people, shake their hands, smile, help them with their problems. My dad wouldn’t have wanted constituency surgeries to stop.”
She added that he would have wanted to be alerted to someone being reported as a potential threat.
His killer, Ali Harbi Ali had been referred to the government’s counter-terror programme Prevent in October 2014 but his case was closed in 2016.
A review published in February 2025 found Ali’s Prevent case was closed too early after “problematic” assessments.
