Who was Sir David Amess? A Brexiteer Tory MP who championed animal welfare and pro-life issues

Days ago, Sir David Amess was signing copies of his memoir at the Conservative Party conference and appealing for votes at the Westminster Dog of the Year Show.

A married father of five, he had been a Conservative MP for nearly 40 years, since his election in 1983. Only Sir Peter Bottomley, Barry Sheerman and Harriet Harman had served in the House of Commons for longer.

As MP for Southend West, Sir David, 69, was above all a constituency politician throwing open his weekly surgeries to local people so he could try to sort out their problems.

Speaking to Iain Dale on LBC in May, Sir David – who held his seat with a comfortable 14,459 majority at the 2019 election – said: "The reason I have survived is every election, I treat it as if it is still a marginal seat. Never, never take anything for granted."

Tributes were made from MPs across the political divide. Sir Peter Bottomley, the Father of the House of Commons, told Sky News: "He was dedicated to his constituency, contributed heavily in Parliament. He was on the Speaker's Panel. He is the kind of person who gave Parliament a good name."

Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, added that he "was one of the kindest, friendliest people you could meet, completely dedicated to serving his constituency".

Sir Roger Gale, a Conservative who entered Parliament with him in 1983, said: "David died doing what David always did, looking after his constituents."

In the House of Commons, where he was widely respected, Sir David never tried to climb the ministerial greasy pole to pursue a career in government, preferring instead to get things done on the floor of the House of Commons.

Two of his most significant achievements were the Protection Against Cruel Tethering Act (1988), and the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act (2000) - both of which are on the statute book in his name.

His Twitter feed was full of meetings with local people and his campaign on animal welfare issues. He supported a ban on fox hunting, as well as plans for a prohibition on the import of hunting trophies. He was also a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.

One of the first to pay tribute was Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister's wife, who said: "He was hugely kind and good. An enormous animal lover and a true gent."

Some of Sir David's more high profile interventions in the Commons were never without humour. In recent years, his questions to ministers had been punctuated by his long-running campaign to make Southend a city.

In December 2019, when he managed to secure a debate on the floor of the Commons specifically to discuss giving city status to Southend, he told MPs: “I am not messing around. We have got it from the Prime Minister that Southend is going to become a city – and it will become a city.”

Sir David also campaigned for a statue to the Queen in his constituency, as well as a memorial to Dame Vera Lynn on the White Cliffs of Dover.

Sir David celebrated his knighthood in 2015 by dressing as a cavalier, clad head to toe in metal armour, clutching a royal standard astride a horse as part of “feast day” celebrations at a local school in his constituency.

A lingering frustration was that people continued to mock him for being duped in 1997 by Channel 4's satirical TV programme Brass Eye about a fake drug called "Cake".

Sir David published a memoir late last year, Ayes and Ears: A Survivor’s Guide to Westminster, offering tips to MPs on how to get the best out of serving in the House of Commons.

In his memoir, Sir David described the murder of the Jo Cox, the Labour MP, outside her own constituency surgery as “totally unexpected”.

Sir David wrote: "These increasing attacks have rather spoilt the great British tradition of people only meeting their elected politicians."

A devout Roman Catholic, Sir David and his wife, Julia Arnold, had a son and four daughters - the eldest of whom is the actress Kate Amess.

Born in Plaistow in the east end of London, the son of an electrician and seamstress, Sir David studied economics and government at the College of Technology in Bournemouth and worked as a teacher and recruitment consultant before he entered politics.

He was first elected to Parliament when he became MP for Basildon in the Conservatives’ 1983 general election victory. He later successfully sought re-election in Southend West in 1997 after a boundary review.

Outside of Parliament, Sir David – with Tory colleague Penny Mordaunt – backed the Music Man project which arranged for 200 children and young adults with learning disabilities to play at the Royal Albert Hall in 2019.

A year earlier in 2018, conversations with a constituent led him to launch the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Endometriosis which seeks to raise awareness of those suffering from the condition.

Sir David was a staunch supporter of the campaign to leave the European Union. He regarded a vote to stay in the European Union as “a huge mistake” after “the loss of Parliamentary sovereignty”.

On December 30 last year, Sir David posted a photo of a cardboard cut-out of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister. He wrote: “Whilst Margaret didn’t live long enough to see this day, I am sure that she is rejoicing in heaven. At last we ‘got Brexit done!'”

Ed Holmes, now a ministerial speech writer whose first job after university was in Sir David's office, on Friday recalled how Sir David said "don't worry about that, Edward" when he forgot to tell the MP that party leader David Cameron had called.

This relaxed attitude to his party leader contrasted with how the pair had "spent the entire afternoon turning the office upside down trying to find" a missing invitation to a local charity duck race. "Nothing was more important," Mr Holmes said.