The news that Labour and the Liberal Democrats will not contest the by-election caused by David Amess’s murder is not a surprise; the Tories and the Liberal Democrats took the same approach in Batley and Spen in 2016. (It should give us all pause that there is recent precedent for how parties should behave in a by-election when the sitting MP has been killed.)
The principle they are standing up for is that violence should not change the party-political balance of the House of Commons. But the pragmatic reason that the last thing a town in mourning needs is a fiercely contested by-election is just as potent a factor.
More than 36 hours on from the attack on Amess, it is hard to escape the grim conclusion that there can be no perfect security for our elected representatives. The very nature of our constituency system relies on MPs making themselves available to their electorates and, sadly, that brings with it risks in this day and age.
As Isabel has said so eloquently, they now tragically run the risk of being killed in the line of duty in the way that police officers and other public servants do.
In the days ahead, the investigation will uncover more about the nature of this attack and what factors contributed to it. But for now, let us concentrate on the diligence with which Amess served his constituents and the town of which he was so proud.
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