Daughter of murdered MP demands answers over his death

“We have a lot of questions, and somebody needs to answer them,” the daughter of murdered Conservative MP Sir David Amess has mentioned.

Katie Amess informed the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that the authorities had did not adequately defend her father and her household wished an investigation.

Ali Harbi Ali stabbed the Southend West MP to death throughout a constituency surgical procedure in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October 2021. He is in jail serving a whole-life jail sentence.

The Home Office and Essex Police mentioned it was inappropriate to remark as a result of of ongoing authorized proceedings, referring to authorized motion Ms Amess started earlier this yr.

Speaking to Today’s Mishal Husain, Ms Amess mentioned: “Nobody is being given any answers… so that we can learn from our mistakes and make sure this doesn’t happen again. “

She mentioned there have been questions as to why police didn’t reply to guard her father when an instantaneous menace had been reported.

She mentioned her brother had obtained a telephone name the evening earlier than the assault, saying Sir David, 69, was going to be killed and that this was reported to the police.

The name was later discovered to be from unrelated events – however Ms Amess mentioned that doesn’t matter as a result of they “should have gone” to Sir David’s constituency surgical procedure the next day.

“Just one threat should be enough for you to go and protect somebody.”

She added: “If they were there, my dad probably wouldn’t be dead.

“And I feel we have to have a full investigation into why they did not present up, and other people have to know the answers to this in order that we are able to stop it taking place once more.”

Essex Police said it had immediately launched an investigation following the phone call and a woman and man were arrested. It said like all police forces, it does not provide officers to police MP constituency surgeries.

“This incident and the homicide of Sir David weren’t linked in any manner,” the force added.

Ms Amess is also calling for a full investigation and disclosure of how Ali – who was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life without parole in 2022 – fell through the cracks of national security.

During the trial, it emerged that Ali had been referred to the government’s counter-extremism programme, Prevent, in 2014 and 2015 when he was a teenager.

Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes decided in July not to resume Sir David’s inquest, which had been adjourned once Ali was charged with murder.

In a report explaining his decision, he said there was so much of a gap between the Prevent intervention and the murder of Sir David that there was “no evidential foundation to contemplate this assault was presumably preventable so a few years and imponderables later.”

But Ms Amess dismisses that, saying: “Why on earth would you not need an inquest into this?

“The point of Prevent is to track down terrorists and stop them before they carry out their attack. That is what Prevent is meant to do.

“The police had a telephone name the evening earlier than, why on earth would they not go to the surgical procedure the following day?

“There’s so many people that are at fault here, and nobody is being given any answers, because I’m not being allowed a full public, open inquest, so that we can learn from our mistakes and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

High Court papers present that Ms Amess, an actress who lives in California, filed a private damage declare towards the Home Office and Essex Police in December.

But she informed the BBC: “I can’t actually do the civil claim, because that would cost, like, hundreds of thousands of pounds that obviously I don’t have.

“So my solely hope was to do that inquest, and that has been taken from me.”

Essex Police said it was aware a claim form had been filed at court, but “as these papers haven’t been served on our drive, we’re unable to remark any additional upon them”.

The force added that Sir David had been a “heroic public servant” and “within the speedy aftermath of his homicide, two of our heroic unarmed officers bumped into the face of hazard, attempting desperately to avoid wasting him and of course detaining his killer.

“Several different of our officers attended shortly afterwards and labored with paramedic colleagues to assist save Sir David, sadly they have been unable to do that.”

It added that it regularly reviewed and advised around security arrangements for the county’s MPs.

“If information or intelligence comes to light to give us cause for concern of the safety of an MP we would of course advise and guide them to keep them safe and provide a policing presence where necessary.”

The Home Office mentioned Prevent was an important instrument in tackling terrorism.

“The attack on Sir David Amess was an awful tragedy, the safety of members of Parliament is paramount and significant work has been taken forward in response to his tragic killing,” it mentioned.

Ms Amess additionally paid tribute to her father as “the most hardest-working person I’ve ever met”, describing him as somebody who liked serving to individuals and who was “full of life and enigmatic and passionate”.

She mentioned it was now “so hard” for her to be in Southend “because it just reminds me of my father”.

“I just wish that he was here to see all of this and to see Southend as a city.”