UK to beef up lawmakers’ security
Britain's interior minister yesterday said MPs' security would be beefed up, after a lawmaker was stabbed to death as he held a public meeting with constituents, in the second such attack in five years.
Veteran Conservative MP David Amess, 69, was talking with voters at a church in the small town of Leigh-on-Sea, east of London, when he was killed on Friday.
The attack has spread fear among MPs, coming just over five years after the similar killing of Labour MP Jo Cox in the febrile run-up to the Brexit referendum.
Police have said they are investigating "a potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism".
Home Secretary Priti Patel has ordered a review of security measures for lawmakers and told Sky News that "we need to close any gaps" in security provision for MPs, whose work includes regular meetings with constituents, called "surgeries".
This includes MPs sharing information on their whereabouts with police. Close protection at surgeries was also "in consideration right now", she added.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that uniformed police were guarding some surgeries following the attack.
Comments