David Amess’ murder during a meeting with constituents on Friday
has shocked the whole of the United Kingdom. Amess, 69, was holding discussions
with his constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North when
a 25-year-old assailant walked into the meeting and stabbed the member of
Parliament multiple times. Amess succumbed to his wounds a couple of hours
later.

Also Read | Unjust, inhumane: UK politicians in shock at David Amess’ murder

Amess’ killing has also thrown back into public memory the
murder of Jo Cox. The 41-year-old Labour MP and mother-of-two was shot and
stabbed by far-right extremist Thomas Mair in West Yorkshire, her constituency,
on June 16, 2016 right ahead of the Brexit referendum.

Also Read | UK Conservative MP David Amess dies after being stabbed

Jo Cox was the first member of Parliament to be killed in office
since 1990. Following Amess’s death, Jo Cox’s husband Brendon Cox said that the
fatal stabbing of another MP “brings everything back”.

“My thoughts and love are with David’s family. They are all that
matter now. This brings everything back. The pain, the loss, but also how much
love the public gave us following the loss of Jo. I hope we can do the same for
David now,” Brendon Cox wrote on Twitter.

The Jo Cox Foundation, a foundation set up in the slain Labour
MP’s name, issued a statement saying: “We are devastated to hear the news of
the death of Sir David Amess MP. We send our deepest sympathies to his family,
loved ones, staff and colleagues.”

“All elected representatives deserve to be safe, and to be
treated with respect. Violence and abuse against them is utterly unacceptable.
It endangers people and their families, and it endangers democratic life(sic),”
the statement reads.

Violence against British politicians is a rare but rising
concern in recent years owing to the increasingly bitter polarisation in the
country’s politics. When in Parliament, British MPs are protected by armed
police. Security at the UK Parliament was heightened after an attacker inspired
by the Islamic State terror outfit stabbed a police official right outside the
seat of democracy in 2017.

But within their constituencies, British parliamentarians have
no such security. David Amess used to post details of his open meetings with
constituents on his website. Eventually, it was at such a meeting where he was
slain.

While Jo Cox and David Amess are the only two MPs to have been
murdered this century, two other MPs were also attacked during routine meetings
with constituents. Stephen Timms, Labour MP, was stabbed in the stomach by a
female student radicalised by online sermons from an Al-Qaida linked preacher in
May 2010.

In 2000, Nigel Jones, a Liberal
Democrat lawmaker, and his aide Andrew Pennington were attacked by a man
wielding a sword also at a meeting with constituents at Cheltenham. Pennington
was killed in the attack while Jones suffered injuries.

(With inputs from Associated Press)