The Commons Speaker has called for a “nicer and kinder politics within the chamber” in the wake of the conviction of Sir David Amess’s murderer.
Lindsay Hoyle told BBC Radio 4: “I want a nicer politics. If we haven’t got democracy, what have we got?... It is about the respect of politicians, it’s building trust with our constituents.
“It’s a difficult road that we’ve got to follow but it’s one we mustn’t give up on.”
Conservative MP Amess was stabbed to death in October 2021 by Ali Harbi Ali, 26, who spent at least two years researching which MP to murder, fuelled by Islamic State propaganda. Ali was convicted at the Old Bailey on Monday of murder and preparing other attacks against MPs. Jurors took only 18 minutes to come to their verdict.
“David would always say one thing,” said Hoyle on Radio 4, saying his thoughts were with the Amess family. “He believed and loved being an MP and nothing would stop him doing that whatever happened.”
Amess died shortly after the attack at a church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, where he had been holding an advice surgery for those from his Southend West constituency. Amess was the second MP in just over five years to be murdered by a terrorist. Labour MP Jo Cox was assassinated in 2016 by a far-right attacker.
“Others like myself will carry on meeting constituents, but doing it in a very safe environment, that’s the key to us,” said Hoyle. “That’s what we were elected to do, we have a duty of care not just to ourselves, but to the staff and the people that come to see us.”
While Hoyle said security was always under review to ensure MPs are safer today, he said politicians would never give into terrorism or its attempts through fear, attacks, violence and murder to stop values being upheld.
In general, Hoyle said MPs of “all political persuasions” were doing a great job. He added that was about being tolerant and respectful, and not about shouting somebody down.
“Let’s show a nicer and kinder politics within the chamber,” he said.
Pointing to two examples, Hoyle said the Commons came together after Amess’s death, and recently when the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, spoke to the House of Commons in a live broadcast from Kyiv last month.
