I was in my constituency office when the shocking news came through about the stabbing of Essex MP Sir David Amess while serving his residents.

The entire team fell silent as we began to absorb this awful, awful tragedy.

Despite David being Conservative and myself Labour, we got on personally. Always courteous and good humoured, as a veteran MP he was helpful to me when I was first elected in 2017.

Our paths crossed due to my Shadow Housing Minister role because we shared concerns over the building safety crisis post-Grenfell. Most weeks I would bump into him in the lift down in London. We also had our Catholic faith in common.

My thoughts are naturally with his loved-ones and colleagues. And I echo the family statement urging people “to set aside their differences and show kindness and love to all”.

We can disagree politically and there’s nothing wrong with being passionate, that’s the essence of living in a democracy. But there’s never an excuse for it to descend into nastiness – whether online or in real life - let alone violence.

Unfortunately, last week’s incident is not a one-off.

Most prominent in our minds is the comparison with the murder of much-loved Labour MP Jo Cox in 2016.

Such horrendous attacks represent an attack on all of us; an assault on our democracy. But the aggressors cannot triumph.

While MPs must be conscious of the need to protect ourselves and those around us, the last thing we want is to be separated from our constituents.

I will heed security advice offered, but we have to find a way of continuing to engage with the people we represent, including in-person.

At the weekend I continued to meet my constituents while out and about in Northwich and attended a special service to ‘see in’ the Mayor of Northwich, my good friend Cllr Sam Naylor.

I sang alongside the Mayor of Knutsford, Cllr Stewart Gardiner. We do not share the same political beliefs but were honoured to be marking this special occasion together, a celebration of civic service, duty and democracy.