EALING Central and Acton MP Rupa Huq paid tribute to her friend, the murdered MP Sir David Amess, in the House of Commons on Monday.
Ms Huq, who was on a parliamentary delegation to the Middle East with Sir David and other MPs last week, said she was one of the last MPs to see him.
In the concluding speech to a moving debate, she said she saw him last at Heathrow baggage reclaim last Wednesday.
“Everyone else had scarpered, everyone else’s stuff had gone,” she told fellow MPs. “I had missed mine because I had been tying up my shoelaces.
“David [Amess] said ‘No, I will wait with you’. I said ‘Come on, you’ve got to go to Essex. Be off with you’. That was the measure of the man and how kind he was.”
She added: “It was difficult to fight back the tears, but I had so many Amess anecdotes or Amess-isms that the speech wrote itself.
“He was such a funny man that, before long, the whole chamber, including the PM, seemed to be laughing.”
Ms Huq later attended a service of remembrance for Sir David at St Margaret’s Church, next to Westminster Abbey, along with party leaders.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here