THE former leader of Ribble Valley Council Ken Hind has paid tribute to David Amess MP who was stabbed to death at his constituency surgery on Friday.
The 72-year-old was Conservative MP for West Lancashire from 1983 to until 1992.
Mr Hind said: "I am deeply shocked about the sad death of David Amess. It was my privilege to know him and work with him.
"David and I entered the House of Commons in 1983, two of the youngest Conservative MP.s at the time.
"I got to know him as a compassionate kind considerate man determined about issues that concerned him.
"Both he and I represented new towns as I represented Skelmersdale and he represented Basildon so we had common interests.
"David was a dedicated constituency MP caring about the people that he represented and he will be greatly missed .
"He would not want the relationship between MP and constituents to be broken by MPs now retreating behind a wall of security.
"Providing access for the public to their elected representatives he firmly believed in and his legacy should be for us to continue to maintain this open democracy."
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