Sir David Amess

I’m not easily shocked these days but the murder of Sir David Amess is one of those moments.

It’s difficult to add to what has already been written or said, especially by those who knew or worked with him.

I didn’t know him other than to say hello to when our paths very occasionally crossed.

In January 2000 he was a member of the Health Select Committee that grilled me and David Swan, the then director of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, when we gave evidence as part of an ‘investigation’ into the tobacco industry and the health risks of smoking.

It was quite an intense session and although I don’t remember Amess asking any questions, I do remember that his was the only friendly face in the room and he would occasionally smile and nod encouragingly in my direction which was appreciated.

Despite his interest in public health (he claimed to have initiated the debate on obesity) he appeared to have an open mind about smoking-related issues and in 2005 told the House:

I do not smoke - I do not think it is very clever to do so - but I defend to the end people's right to smoke.

After he stood down from the Health Select Committee in 2007 - having served on it for ten years - he accepted invitations to attend several Forest events including one or two of our annual Freedom Dinners which he seemed to enjoy.

On another occasion, when he was unable to attend a Forest reception at the House of Commons, he sent a member of staff to represent him.

I mention it because this is not the norm for MPs - who are often airily dismissive of groups like Forest and either reject or ignore such invitations - but Amess wasn’t your average politician.

To some he was a bit of a maverick but I prefer the word ‘independent’.

Sir David (he was knighted in the 2015 New Year Honours for ‘political and public service’) also fell into that category of MP whose primary objective is to be a good, hard-working constituency MP in preference to achieving high office.

Sometimes that decision is forced upon them by virtue of a wafer-thin majority and they need to shore up their vote.

Sometimes it’s because they put parliament before party and are genuine public servants with principles that may be ill-suited to government and collective responsibility.

Amess was arguably in the latter category which is why his name appears on a list we compiled in 2012 that read ‘Potential Tory rebels against plain packaging’.

As anticipated he subsequently voted against the measure but, true to himself, he then voted in favour of a ban on smoking in cars carrying children.

Meanwhile a lot has been written since his murder about his commitment to his constituents. Here’s an early example and, yes, it is tobacco related but that’s because I know my readership and you probably won’t read this anywhere else.

In March 1984, in response to the imminent closure of a cigarette factory in his (then) Basildon constituency, Amess told the House:

I want to say a brief word about unemployment in Basildon and, in particular, about the intended closure of the Carreras Rothmans factory. Five weeks before Christmas, I had the privilege to be invited to the factory. I was shown round, and I saw the goods that are made there. I met the work force and was given a warm welcome. I also met the management. The general atmosphere was one of great optimism. So when I was telephoned on 5 January to say that the company was to announce the closure of the factory, not only was I devastated but so were the many people who worked there.

I immediately made representations to the Government, and tabled early-day motion 443. I was rather saddened when a number of Opposition Members sought to amend my motion. I am well aware of how some hon. Members feel about smoking and the damage that it does to health. I am sure it was a brave action to amend my early-day motion, but I wonder whether those hon. Members, if they had joined me in the second week of January when I and the general secretary of the Tobacco Workers Union, Doug Grieve, addressed the 1,200 workers outside the factory gates in Basildon, would have been so brave in putting forward their view there. I doubt it very much.

In other words, Amess was not a smoker, he did not think it ‘very clever’ to smoke. Nevertheless he defended an adult’s right to smoke and when he witnessed first hand the devastating impact the closure of a cigarette factory was going to have on workers in his constituency he spoke out in parliament.

All that pales into insignificance now, I know, and I appreciate it’s largely irrelevant to the shocking murder of an MP going about his business.

I just wanted to mention it because it sums up to me why David Amess (an MP many people may not have heard of before yesterday) deserved his knighthood and why his death is such a loss to the constituents he represented and continued to fight so hard for, whatever their background or political allegiance.