A threatening message arrived at his Chingford office this week By
Sir Iain Duncan Smith (credit: parliament.uk)
MP Iain Duncan Smith claims to have received a death threat at his Chingford office this week, which allegedly referenced the violent death of another MP.
The Chingford and Woodford Green MP told the House of Commons on 18th October, while offering his tribute to Sir David Amess, who was killed at his constituency surgery last Friday.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the late Southend West Conservative MP, who he knew for 29 years, “was outstandingly and unfailingly kind, conscientious and generous”.
He also said a “document came through the door” of his constituency office on Station Road that very day, which referenced the stabbing and appeared to threaten his own life.
The Met Police confirmed they were called just before 1pm that day “following a report of malicious communications” and that there had been no arrests so far.
In his tribute to Sir Amess, he said: “His sense of humour was always there, preceded by that megawatt smile that he could turn on.
“For most of us in this Chamber, it is hard work sometimes being able to smile enough, but for David it was hard work not to smile, and he would smile even in some of the most difficult circumstances.
“On a more serious note, I want to say that David has shown us the way—the way of cooperation.
“David was the architect of that. There was not an alliance that he could not form; even if there was not an issue on which he could form it, he would form it.
“For David’s family, this is a tragedy, which this deranged, hateful and violent individual has brought to them, unwarranted and without cause.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith added that the brutal killing was “a lesson” to the House of Commons, adding: “We need to be careful here what we legitimise in what we say about our colleagues.
“Nobody in this Chamber is an evil individual. They have strong beliefs… We come here because we have strong beliefs, and we should be proud of that.
“We argue with each other because we are the point where people can see us debate these things, have power of emotion and be angry about them—this place is a cockpit of that—so that they do not have to do it outside, violently, elsewhere.
“We respect each other, but we do not dislike or hate each other. That is not for us, and it is not for that that [David] lost his life.”
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