David Amess stabbing is the latest in series of attacks on MPs

Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after being stabbed multiple times at a meeting with constituents in Essex.

A suspect has been arrested after the 69-year-old MP was stabbed at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea at midday on Friday.

Tributes have poured in for Amess, who had been an MP since 1983.

The attack on Amess is the latest in a series of attacks on MPs. In 2016 Jo Cox was the first MP to be murdered in 26 years, with other recent incidents including the stabbing of Stephen Timms MP in 2010.

Jo Cox, 2016

In 2016, Labour MP Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in her constituency by a far-right supporter on June 16, 2016.

In November 2016 Thomas Mair was given a whole-life sentence for murdering the 41-year-old Batley and Spen MP in Birstall, in her West Yorkshire constituency.

Cox was the first MP to be murdered in office since 1990.

Stephen Timms, 2010

Six years prior in May 2010, East Ham MP Stephen Timms was stabbed twice in the abdomen by Roshonara Choudhry, an Islamic extremist who claimed she had wanted “to get revenge for the people of Iraq”.

Although he suffered serious injuries, police said he was “extremely fortunate not to have been killed”. He remains an MP.

Nigel Jones, 2000

In January 2000, Nigel Jones, then MP for Cheltenham, was severely injured when he was attacked in his offices by a man with a sword.

Andrew Pennington, a Gloucestershire county councillor, was killed in the same attack while trying to defend the then-MP. He was posthumously awarded the George Medal for bravery.

The attacker, Robert Ashman, had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was deemed unfit to stand trial and was ordered to be detained indefinitely in a secure hospital.

Ian Gow, 1990

Eastbourne MP Gow (53), a former private parliamentary secretary to Margaret Thatcher, was killed by an IRA car bomb at his home in Sussex.

Sir Anthony Berry, 1984

Enfield Southgate MP Sir Anthony Berry was killed when the IRA bombed Brighton’s Grand Hotel, where Mrs Thatcher was staying for the 1984 Conservative Party conference.

Robert Bradford, 1981

Ulster Unionist Party MP Robert Bradford was shot dead by the IRA while holding a constituency surgery in a Belfast community centre in 1981.

Airey Neave, 1979

Former Northern Ireland secretary Airey Neave was killed when his car was blown up as he drove out of the parliamentary car park at Westminster in 1979. The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the murder.

No other sitting MPs have been murdered in the post-war period, although Labour’s former MP for Accrington Walter Scott-Elliot was killed by his butler in 1977, many years after leaving Parliament.

Former Tory MP Sir Richard Sharples was assassinated by a militant group in Bermuda 1973, while serving as the island’s Governor.

The only prime minister to have been murdered in office was Spencer Perceval, who was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812.

Sir David is survived by his wife Julia, his son and four daughters.

In 2015 he was knighted for services to politics and public service.

Additional reporting by PA.