Former North Wales crime commissioner criticised over tweet following death of Sir David Amess
Liam Randall, local democracy reporter
A former police and crime commissioner has been criticised over a tweet he posted in the wake of the death of Sir David Amess.
Arfon Jones, who was PCC for North Wales for five years before stepping down ahead of May’s elections, appeared to lay the blame for the MP’s killing at the door of the UK Government.
In a tweet which has since been deleted, Arfon Jones said: “Unfortunately, this is what happens when you have a government that divides and rules and sows hate, fear and division. Someone somewhere will respond violently.”
He later apologised for what he described as his “untimely and insensitive” remarks.
Sir David, Conservative MP for Southend West, had been holding a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, when he was stabbed multiple times on Friday.
A 25-year-old man is being held in police custody under the Terrorism Act following the incident.
The comments by Mr Jones, a former police inspector and Wrexham councillor, were widely condemned after he posted them on Friday afternoon.
Brecon and Radnorshire Conservative MP Fay Jones said: “You were absolutely out of line.
“You have a long history of attacking and disrespecting those who disagree with you. You are not fit for public office.”
‘Toxicity’
In a tweet posted after his original comments were removed, Mr Jones said: “I wish to apologise for my earlier tweet, it was untimely and insensitive.
“What I was trying to express was concern about the toxic nature of our political discourse and the tragic consequences of such toxicity.”
There have been calls for MPs’ security arrangements to be reviewed in the wake of Sir David’s death.
Delyn MP Rob Roberts was among those who said the attack had left him “scared”, adding he would be holding discussions with his staff on how surgeries are held in future.
Mr Jones said he had no further comment to make in response to the criticism of his tweet when contacted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
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The crazy thing is that David Amess was a good constituency MP who moved many bills on animal welfare then voted to deny benefits claimants cost of living rises and was particularly virulently opposed to the rights of disabled people.
Only last week we learned that there have been tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths caused by Conservative policies which he supported so reacting to what is a heinous crime in any language is fraught with conflicting emotion.
Advocating the death penalty got me…but as a Jainist/Quaker all life is sacred to me…
What he said may have been insensitive, but was what he said wrong.
I said similar to my friend this morning, it was a terrible thing to happen but the Tory party is such a monger of hate, bigotry and corruption
In the case of David Amess, we still don’t know what motivated the murderer. In more general terms he’s not wrong, but he’s wrong to link the way Tories behave to Sir David’s killing. It’s also more than insensitive to exploit a man’s murder to score political points.
Being an inveterate fan of Hill St Blues I do worry about Elected Crime Commisioners with strong political allegiances – they just make me think of cynical sleazebags like Chief Daniels.
Yes I know it’s was a very long time ago but it’s still all available on Channel 4’s website for free, and it’s stood the test of time surprisingly well.
‘Be careful out there’ is still good advice.
So Fay Jones says Arfon Jones is “not fit for public office.” The words ‘pot’, ‘kettle’ and ‘black’ spring to mind!!
RW You got there before me ! MP Fay Jones said: “You were absolutely out of line.
“You have a long history of attacking and disrespecting those who disagree with you. You are not fit for public office.” That’s a statement that sums her up better than anything I have ever seen. She builds her career on negative sniping, I don’t recall ever seeing a positive contribution from her.
An unnecessary apology prompted by no more than an opportunistic counter snipe by a shallow tory wannabe.