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."