The Westminster attack: MPs praise parliamentary staff but ask serious questions about security
6 min read
To the casual observer, it is as if nothing ever happened.
New Palace Yard has returned to normal, with ministerial cars coming and going, and parliamentary staff, MPs, peers and aides carrying out their normal business.
Even Carriage Gates, where Khalid Masood burst in with murderous intent at 2.41pm last Wednesday, look just as they did beforehand. Unarmed police officers still stand behind the flimsy metal gate which separates the outside world from the cradle of British democracy, happily posing for selfies with tourists.
Only the massive display of floral tributes to PC Keith Palmer and the victims on Westminster Bridge attached to the railing a few yards down the street – and which has now spilled over onto Parliament Square – gives any indication that something terrible happened here only days ago.
As Theresa May told MPs the day after the terrorist attack: “The greatest response lies not in the words of politicians, but in the everyday actions of ordinary people”.
But while on the surface everything is as it was, there remains a palpable air of unease; a feeling of impregnability – perhaps even complacency – has been punctured, and is unlikely to return.
Serious questions are rightly being asked about the measures which are in place to keep those who work in parliament safe.
Based on her own experience of the events of last Wednesday, Labour MP for Dewsbury Paula Sherriff believes security “is not as it should be”.
She was sitting with three friends in the Terrace dining room, behind the parliamentarians’ partition discussing the Middle East, when a woman started screaming from the service area.
The screams became louder. “There was a man in a balaclava, wearing fatigues and holding a big machine gun,” says Sherriff. “In retrospect, he was obviously special forces or something similar.”
At the time, though, Sherriff feared this was a gunman acting out a repeat of November’s Paris attacks.
Sherriff and five peers ran through a door marked as a fire exit, but found themselves in what was effectively a cupboard.
“There was no obvious way out,” she says. “There was a bolt thing on a door which we tried to move to see if we could get out, but we couldn’t. It wasn’t obvious how to get out and we were in there for about two minutes.
“As ludicrous as it sounds now, the situation was one of mass hysteria. The parliamentary staff were fantastic, but there are a number of areas where security is not as it should be.”
Praise for the actions of parliament’s staff as chaos descended on Westminster is a common theme when speaking to MPs and peers in the days since.
Those in the Terrace dining room were evacuated shortly after the attack took place, leaving uneaten food and other detritus behind them.
The same scenario was played out in the members’ tea room at around 4pm.
With parliament in lockdown, it would be hours before anyone was able to return to where they had been before.
But while parliamentarians and their staff were able to go home from around 7pm after the police gave them the all-clear, those whose duty it is to provide refreshments to everyone else had to return to their places of work, clear up the cold and congealed remnants of the lunchtime service and prepare for the next day.
“I can’t praise them highly enough,” says one MP. “At least we were able to go home to our loved ones relatively early, but they went back to work and, by the time we came back in on Thursday morning, everything was back to normal.”
The hundreds of MPs who were locked in the Commons chamber when deputy speaker Lindsay Hoyle suspended proceedings minutes after the attack also had good reason to thank parliamentary staff for their kindness and professionalism.
Water was quickly distributed to anyone who wanted it, while nuts and crisps also appeared – no one seems to know exactly where from – to provide extra sustenance as the hours ticked by.
Poignantly, the mace was removed from its normal resting place and taken to a cupboard in the Reasoned Room. Then, when it got too busy in there, it was placed in another cupboard behind the Speaker’s chair.
Dominic Grieve was in the Commons library, having just voted, when the attack took place.
“Once we got there, we couldn’t get back into the chamber,” he says. “There was a group of about a dozen of us at the Speakers’ end who were watching what was happening on Westminster Bridge.
“We thought we would be allowed to go back to our offices, we hadn’t expected to be ordered out by the police – they burst in and turfed us out.
“We were taken to the lower ministerial corridor, which was like the Black Hole of Calcutta – there were hundreds of people there and it was very airless. After 20 minutes we went to Westminster Hall via Speakers’ Court, where we could see the remains of what had happened earlier.
“We were there for about 20 or 30 minutes and then taken to Westminster Abbey.”
It was at 5pm – nearly two-and-a-half hours after the attack took place – that around 1,400 MPs, peers, staff and visitors – including at least one party of schoolchildren – were evacuated from Parliament across the road to the abbey.
They were greeted by Dr John Hall, the Dean of Westminster, who said a short welcome prayer.
Sources at the abbey are keen to play down the part they played in helping to deal with the immediate aftermath of the attack, insisting that they only wanted to be “good neighbours” in a time of need.
But there is no doubt that their contribution was significant, providing shelter and refreshments to all concerned until police finally gave the all-clear at 9pm.
Dominic Grieve says: “The staff in the abbey were absolutely fantastic in looking after us. The vergers entertained the children and provided us with everything we could have needed. They could not have been kinder.”
A spokesman for the abbey said: “We were just very pleased to be able to assist the police in dealing with the incident and more than happy to help our neighbours in the Palace of Westminster. We wanted to be a place of safety for MPs, peers and their staff.”
Already, the political caravan has moved on. Theresa May has triggered Article 50, the Scottish parliament has demanded the right to hold another independence referendum, and Labour MPs continue to obsess about the plight of their party.
But the bravery of PC Palmer, the professionalism of his colleagues, and the selfless hard work of parliamentary staff will never be forgotten.
Additional reporting by Mark Leftly
PoliticsHome Newsletters
Get the inside track on what MPs and Peers are talking about. Sign up to The House's morning email for the latest insight and reaction from Parliamentarians, policy-makers and organisations.
