The killing of a popular MP ripples across a nation

The death of David Amess has stunned his Essex constituents – and inspired tributes across divides

Shortly after 9am last Saturday, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer bent to lay wreaths at the Essex church where Conservative MP Sir David Amess had been killed less than 24 hours earlier. Accompanied by the rumble of helicopters, the political leaders soon left Leigh-on-Sea and a community searching for answers.

On Monday, Boris Johnson led tributes to Amess, 69, in Westminster while the MP’s widow, Julia, read messages on floral tributes left outside the church where he had been killed.

Johnson, who described Amess as “a patriot who believed passionately in this country, in its people and in its future”, announced that the Queen had agreed Southend will be granted city status, something for which Amess had long campaigned.

The man arrested on suspicion of killing the MP is Ali Harbi Ali, 25, a British-born man whose family fled to the UK from war-ravaged Somalia. He was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder but was further detained under the Terrorism Act 2000.

According to several sources, the man is not on MI5’s vast database of people of interest. However, he is believed to have been referred to Prevent, the official programme to stop radicalisation. It is reported that his involvement was short. He has no known previous terrorist connection.

Ali is said to have lived or have family links in the Southend area but had moved to London. Last Friday, he travelled to Essex by train but told Tory constituency workers he had recently moved to the area and wanted to speak to the MP.

On Monday, friends of Ali’s father, Harbi Ali Kullane, a former director of media and communications for a former prime minister of Somalia, said that Kullane had worked on antiextremism projects in Somalia

The events last Friday have traumatised the people of Leigh-onSea and reopened questions across the country about MPs’ safety five years after the murder of Labour’s Jo Cox.

Previous Islamist terrorist attacks in the UK have prompted a rise in hate crimes, and the police declaration of a terrorist incident has also turned attention to Leigh’s modest Muslim population, which, according to the last census, was 1.9% for Southendon-Sea, which incorporates Leigh and Belfairs, where Amess was killed.

The Zaidis are one of the area’s most prominent Muslim families and were close friends with Amess. The death of Habib Zaidi, 76, who ran a Belfairs GP surgery before succumbing to Covid-19 last year, was mentioned by Amess in parliament. Their relationship, said Zaidi’s wife, articulated what she believed was the effortless multiculturalism of Leigh-on-Sea. She said: “It’s extremely integrated around here. There’s no race hate, everyone coexists here in peace.”

Further along Eastwood Road North, student Grisharni Raviraj also described a town where, she said, she had experienced no racial disharmony. However, she admitted that

her parents had discussed security concerns in the wake of the tragedy, despite the family not being Muslim. “My parents have warned me, saying the first thing people notice is the colour of my skin,” said Raviraj, who has lived in the area for a decade.

A joint statement from all of Southend’s mosques described the fatal stabbing as an “indefensible atrocity”. Published on the Essex Jamme Masjid website, it said: “We look forward to the perpetrator being brought to justice.”

Southend councillor John Lamb, another close friend of Amess, said the attacker had been waiting to see the MP then “drew a knife and stabbed him” when he was summoned.

Lee Jordo, a local butcher, described hearing a commotion last Friday afternoon. He rushed over, arriving 15 minutes after the attack began, and saw a woman screaming on the phone: “Get here quick, he’s not breathing.”

“It could have been a lot worse,” Jordo said. “I dread to think what would have happened if he’d have gone on a rampage.” He is among those who hope the quest for answers doesn’t motivate some to target the town’s small south Asian population.

As the police investigation continued and the pile of flowers outside the church steadily grew last Friday, crowds congregated to pay tribute to their former MP.

James Duddridge, MP for the neighbouring constituency, addressed the gathering with a microphone, describing how he had been inundated with tributes to Amess and reassured local people that there was “no ongoing threat to Southend”.

Later, Stephen Aylen, a former independent councillor for the area, said that the death of “the perfect local MP” had prompted him to reanalyse some of the behaviour he had experienced as a politician. “I’m a nothing but I’ve been pushed up against the wall and punched. I’ve had human shit thrown at me … people are nasty but to pull out a knife is so exceptional,” he said.

Yet most of those interviewed portrayed Leigh-on-Sea as a place where extreme violence was rare. No longer. From here onwards, their town will be synonymous with the killing of its much-loved MP.