Ali Harbi Ali

On 15 October 2021, David Amess, a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Southend West, was fatally stabbed at a constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church Hall in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

His killer was Ali Harbi Ali, a British Islamic State sympathiser, who was arrested at the scene.

Ali was convicted of murder and the preparation of terrorist acts in April 2022, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.

Sir David Amess was a long-serving politician who entered Parliament in 1983 as MP for Basildon; at the time of his death, he was MP for Southend West.

On the evening of 16 October, the Metropolitan Police Service confirmed the suspect had been detained under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, and that magistrates had extended the period the suspect could be held in custody for questioning until 22 October.

On 17 October, police identified the stabbing as a terrorist incident potentially motivated by Islamic extremism.

Police searched three addresses in London over the weekend following the stabbing.

On 21 October, a prosecutor told Westminster Magistrates' Court that Ali considered himself an affiliate of the Islamic State and that he had planned the attack two years in advance.

The court also heard that his actions were "connected to the conflict in Syria".

When taken to Southend police station, Ali told the booking officer that he had committed "terror".

When asked for his motive, he said "religious".

In a police interview, he said "I mean, I guess yeah, I killed an MP. I done it, so yeah", then said he regretted that statement because it sounded like a Little Britain sketch.

He said that Amess was suspicious of him and thought he was an undercover reporter.

On 21 October 2021, Ali was charged with the murder of Amess and the prior preparation of terrorist acts.

On 22 October, he appeared at London's Old Bailey via video link from HMP Belmarsh, during which he was remanded in custody.

In 2014, as a teenager, he was referred to Prevent, the United Kingdom's voluntary programme for those thought to be at risk of radicalisation, from which he was referred on to the Channel programme.

He is believed not to have spent long in the programme, and he was not a "subject of interest" to MI5.

At approximately 6:32 pm on 15 October, Essex Police announced that the investigation had been handed over to the Counter Terrorism Command of London's Metropolitan Police Service.

He held no senior positions during his career but was described by journalist Nick Paton Walsh as an "instantly recognisable" member of the Conservative Party, and was knighted for his political and public service in 2015.

He was a devout Catholic and a socially conservative politician who opposed abortion, supported capital punishment, and campaigned in favour of Brexit.

He was a supporter of animal welfare and supported a ban on fox hunting.

He also supported a campaign to award city status to Southend-on-Sea, the main town of his constituency.

Amess's voting record on UK airstrikes in Syria as well as his membership with the Conservative Friends of Israel were later cited by Ali as motives for his murder.

Ali said during police interviews that he had been influenced by the propaganda of Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, who had called on Muslims to attack people in their home countries who were deemed to be enemies of the Islamic State.

Following the 2016 murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox en route to a constituency surgery, the first such murder of a sitting MP since Ian Gow in 1990, Amess wrote in his 2020 autobiography that fears of similar attacks "rather spoilt the great British tradition of the people openly meeting their elected politicians", and that he had faced "nuisance from the odd member of the general public" and insecurity at his own home.

MPs are protected by armed police within Parliament, with security tightened after the 2017 Westminster attack.

They are generally not given police protection during surgeries, and are normally accompanied by only one member of staff.

Following Cox's death, parliamentary spending on MPs' personal security rose from under £200,000 to £4.5 million in two years.

Amess's murder was the second killing of a British MP in five years and prompted renewed calls for better security.

On 15 October 2021, Amess held a constituency surgery at the church hall of Belfairs Methodist Church on Eastwood Road North in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.

He was scheduled to meet constituents from 10 am to 1 pm.

He held a virtual meeting on Zoom with a colleague and talked to local residents on the steps of the hall before entering the building around 12:05 pm, accompanied by two female members of staff, to speak with people who had arrived earlier.

While inside the church hall, a man armed with a knife emerged from a group of constituents and stabbed Amess multiple times.

Police and paramedics arrived at the scene within minutes.

The suspect waited inside the church hall, where he was arrested and a police cordon was set up.

An air ambulance landed at Belfairs Sports Ground to take Amess to hospital, but the medical team decided that his condition was not stable enough to transport him and so continued to work on him at the scene.

His death was confirmed at 1:13 pm.

Counter-terrorist police officers were involved in the early stages of the investigation.

Essex Police said that a "25-year-old man was quickly arrested after officers arrived at the scene on suspicion of murder and a knife was recovered".

Ali Harbi Ali, from Kentish Town, North London, was arrested at the scene.