Security review for politicians after fatal stabbing of Tory MP

Naomi Long said the chief constable was engaging with MPs, MLAs and councillors after Friday’s fatal stabbing in Essex.

“I know the Chief Constable has made contact with MPs in the wake of what has happened in England to talk to them about their security and their personal safety and is also making contact I think with MLAs and also with councillors,” she told BBC NI’s Sunday Politics.

“I think as elected representatives we want to be accessible, we want to be able to be approachable and it’s very difficult to balance that against trying to protect yourself, and indeed your staff and other people who are with you.

“So I think (it’s) just having that conversation initially about what can be done to try and ensure that people are safe but at the same time that they’re not locked away from the very people that they want to engage with.”

In London, Home Secretary Priti Patel said police could be called in to guard MP surgeries to keep them safe following the murder.

Ms Patel said “protection” for MPs while they are holding talks with constituents was one of the options being considered under a “whole spectrum” of measures to address safety concerns in the wake of the Southend West MP’s killing on Friday.

It came as Labour shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy admitted she did not feel safe when going about her Wigan constituency and said she was not sure that the situation was “recoverable” for public servants, following the killing of two serving MPs in the past five years.

Conservative Sir David, 69, who had been an MP since 1983, was meeting constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on Friday afternoon when he was stabbed multiple times in a frenzied attack.

His death comes after the Labour MP for Batley and Spen, Jo Cox, was murdered in 2016 as she was on her way to a constituency surgery.

Ms Patel said discussions were under way with MPs about extra measures that might be required, with each representative contacted by their local police force since the attack in Essex.

The Cabinet minister told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips On Sunday programme that the options being considered included that “when you hold your surgeries, could you have officers or some kind of protection while you’re holding your surgery?”

MPs could also be asked to share their whereabouts at all times with the police in a bid to keep them free from harm, she said.

Asked if she would consider airport-style security, Ms Patel said: “That would be with the police and the House authorities. There are lots of things under consideration already.”

But Ms Patel was adamant that MPs should continue to be accessible to the public, despite the recent attacks and the barrage of threats they receive.

The Home Secretary said: “This should never ever break that link between an elected representative and their democratic role, responsibility and duty to the people who elected them.”

It came as police searches thought to be related to the investigation of Sir David’s murder continued on Sunday.

At least three officers wearing blue gloves were seen working inside a flat in a converted property in Kentish Town, north London, on Sunday morning.

A 25-year-old man was arrested at the scene of the attack in Essex on suspicion of murder. He has since been detained under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and is in custody at a London police station.

A warrant of further detention, which allows detectives to hold the man until October 22, was granted at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.

The name the police have for the suspect is Ali Harbi Ali, the PA news agency understands.

Official sources told PA he is believed to be a British national with Somali heritage.

The Sunday Times said the suspected killer’s father, Harbi Ali Kullane, who the newspaper described as a former adviser to the prime minister of Somalia, had confirmed that his British-born son had been arrested.