It’s been a bad couple of weeks for Conservative MPs. On the 7th October, James Brokenshire lost his battle against lung cancer, and last Friday, Sir David Amess was murdered in his constituency, doing the job he adored.

We were all upset when we lost James. But we knew of his illness and whilst we prayed for the best, we knew the outcome was unlikely to be good.

But the death of Sir David has come like a punch to the guts. David was the singular most liked and respected MP of a generation. Enormously likeable, he was never not smiling. Our political paths didn’t cross beyond our obvious political alliance – he was a bit more Brexity than me, for one thing. But he was always good for a chat and a joke. Importantly, he had no ambitions other than serving his constituents to the very best of his ability – something he did for nearly 40 years.

This means that since I have been Wyre Forest’s MP – I was first elected in 2010 – two of my colleagues have been murdered, and a third stabbed. The common thread? All three were doing their constituency surgery when attacked.

This is so important. The absolute keystone of democracy is accessibility to representatives. MPs, councillors, regional assembly members, whoever, are nothing more or less than members of their communities, chosen by those same communities, to represent the interests of those communities. They are not different – indeed, the whole point is that they are the same as the communities they represent. The more we treat the political class as different, with different rules and expectations for politicians than for our constituents, the more we create a separate political class.

Politicians can be guilty of bringing this problem on themselves. It is one thing to have a robust debate about policy – that is so important. But it is another to attack people for having a different view. We may differ on policy, but does that justify calling other MPs offensive names?

There is no doubt that security will be heightened further as a result of last week’s tragic attack. But for me, the undeniable privilege of representing the people of Wyre Forest, and the simple joy it gives me and my colleagues in helping, unquestioningly, constituents to sort out their problems, means that I will do absolutely everything I can to make sure nothing comes between me and those who want to see me.