Essex Police say a man in his 30s is being questioned on suspicion of a public order offence and criminal damage after a video appeared to show someone spitting on the memorial in Southend.
A man has been arrested after a video appeared to show a person spitting on the statue of Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP murdered in 2021. Essex Police said the man, in his 30s, was arrested in Westcliff-on-Sea on Friday morning, close to the memorial. He is being questioned on suspicion of a public order offence and criminal damage, and remains in custody. The incident is believed to have happened just days after the fifth anniversary of Sir David’s death.
What police have said
An Essex Police spokesman said: “A man has been arrested as part of an investigation which relates to a video posted on social media in Southend. A report was made to us on Wednesday, October 21, and our investigation was launched.”
He added: “This morning, Friday, October 23, a man aged in his 30s was arrested in Westcliff. He’s being questioned on suspicion of a public order offence and criminal damage. He remains in custody.”
According to LBC, Chief Inspector David Browning, the Southend district commander, said on Thursday that officers were pursuing several lines of enquiry and recognised the distress the footage could cause. The Amess family’s spokesman, Radd Seiger, welcomed the police involvement and said the family trusted investigators to establish the facts.
Police have not said whether the man has been charged, whether he is the person in the footage, whether more than one person was involved, or whether the statue has been permanently damaged. They have not said whether the incident is being treated as aggravated or what motive lies behind it. An arrest is not a finding of guilt.
The video
The footage was posted on TikTok and has since been deleted. It appeared to show a man filming himself spitting several times on the statue, which stands on Southend’s seafront. According to LBC, the recording included the words: “Voted for the Iraq war. Shame.” The British Bulletin reported that it also appeared to mock people paying tribute to Sir David, and that one sequence included an offensive hand gesture. Police have not officially established a motive.
Local reporting cited in the research notes says the clip was shared by an account called “Angry Jesus”, which has been linked to pro-Palestinian activism and earlier street-confrontation videos in Southend. The British Bulletin reports the account holder wrote: “It wasn’t me who spat on Sir David.” It has not been established whether the man arrested is the account holder or someone shown in the footage, and no link should be assumed.
Reaction
A spokesman for Sir David’s family said: “To see his memorial treated in this way is deeply upsetting. David believed passionately in freedom of expression and the right to disagree. He understood that people would hold different political views, sometimes profoundly so. But disagreement should never be an excuse for abandoning basic standards of decency and respect.”
He added: “David was murdered because of the extremism of another individual. Five years on, his family continues to live with the consequences of that terrible loss.”
Dame Priti Patel, the former home secretary, who attended the unveiling, called the incident a “sickening and disgusting act”, according to Your Southend. Daniel Cowan, leader of Southend City Council, said: “This individual is behaving vilely and that behaviour is not welcome in our city.” Councillor Martin Berry condemned the footage despite past political disagreements with Sir David, saying he had been personable and willing to discuss opposing views. A resident who said she supports the Palestinian cause told Your Southend that she found the incident unacceptable.
About the statue
Sir David was stabbed to death at a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea in October 2021. Islamic State fanatic Ali Harbi Ali was sentenced to a whole-life order for the murder the following year. Sir David represented Southend West from 1997 to 2021, and Basildon from 1983 to 1997.
The life-sized statue was unveiled in April 2024 near the Chalkwell Lifeguards’ base, where he used to walk his dogs and had built a close relationship with the lifeguards. At the time, his former constituency assistant Julie Cushion said: “He may not admit it, but I’m sure he would have been flattered there is a statue in his memory.” According to Sky News, as set out in the research notes, it was made by the sculptor Andrew Lilley and paid for by a public fundraising campaign and a contribution from the businessman Dr Vijay Patel.
