MPs safety fears remain six months after Amess murder

MPs still have significant concerns about their safety six months on from the murder of David Amess, with some MPs anonymously saying that the situation over security had worsened.

According to the Guardian, MPs have blamed a ‘shambolic’ handover between the previous and current security contractor, saying outstanding requests for safety measures had piled up and been delayed further by assessments of what equipment they needed having to be redone.

The previous security contractor, Chubb, was ditched following increasing concerns in Parliament, but the latest revelations suggest that are still complaints that security equipment requested nearly a year ago had still not been installed by the successor firm, ADT.

One MP has said that they have been waiting 10 months for basic security equipment at their home, including a CCTV camera and lights.

Kim Leadbeater, the MP for the Batley and Spen seat that her sister Jo Cox represented until she was killed in 2016, said were still ‘inefficiencies in the system around practical measures of protection’. She acknowledged that MPs should be accessible to the public and it was a ‘real challenge to ‘get that balance right’. As well improving security for MPs, she said it was important to change ‘the culture around politics” to “make it a more civilised place and a less dangerous place to be’.