A Conservative Member of Parliament has revealed that she wears a stab-proof vest when meeting with her constituents in light of the Islamist assassination of Sir David Amess last year.
Virginia Crosbie, the Conservative MP for Ynys Mon in Wales, disclosed this week that to mitigate the threat posed to her by the public as a politician, she wears a “stab jacket” to ward off potential knife attacks. She said that this came in response to the murder of Sir David Amess, who was stabbed to death by radical Islamist Ali Harbi Ali during a meeting with constituents, known in Britain as “surgeries”.
Speaking to GB News, the Tory MP said: “I have been in difficult situations. I have surgeries, I do face-to-face surgeries where I wear a stab jacket, obviously following the murder of David Amess.”
“And also, I have security protection as well. I think it’s important I have direct contact with my constituents. And, unfortunately, this is one of the things I have to do to ensure that I can actually do the job that I was elected to do,” Crosbie added.
A fellow Tory MP, Mike Freer of Finchley said that he has also taken to wearing stab vests and carries a panic alarm device when he meets with the public at MP surgeries.
James Sunderland, who was the last MP to see Sir David alive, said that the killing of Amess “won’t be the last”, saying: “Heaven forbid it happens again, but it’s a question of when, not if, and what we have to do is do everything in our power to prepare us for those situations.”
Despite the threat from Islamic terrorism, which security officials and reports have acknowledged still poses a greater risk than far-right extremism, a review from former Charity Commission Chairman Sir William Shawcross reportedly found that police forces and the Prevent anti-terror programme continue to place a disproportionate focus on the far-right out of political correctness.
Indeed, the killer of Sir David Amess, himself, Ali Harbi Ali, was reportedly determined to not be a serious danger by officials at Prevent in 2015, meaning that his case was shut down.
A report last year from the Henry Jackson Society think tank found that although Islamic extremists accounted for 90 per cent of those on security service watch lists, the number of far-right suspects referred to Prevent (22 per cent) nearly matched the number of Islamists referred to the programme (24 per cent).
Attempting to reassure the public on the safety of their representatives, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The safety of MPs is very important. There is a great deal of work that goes on both across government and with the parliamentary authorities on this.
“The Government – mainly the Home Office – will take every appropriate measure to ensure the safety of MPs.”
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