The Bournemouth MP hailed as a hero for his role in the Westminster attack has said the UK is going through a ‘dark chapter’.
Tobias Ellwood attempted to save the life of PC Keith Palmer after he was stabbed by Khalid Masood a year ago today.
The MP for Bournemouth East told the BBC: “The vivid image I have is of returning home after what had happened and finding my son on top of the stairs – he was in tears.
“I sat next to him and he just asked ‘why?’.
“He couldn’t understand why I’d stepped forward, why somebody had been killed, why somebody was yielding a knife in a place that he had visited many times.
“All I could offer was that there are some bad people in the world but there are a lot more good people, and it’s that good people that win.”
He fought back tears as he recalled explaining the incident to his children.
Masood deliberately drove a rental car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before attacking PC Palmer on the grounds of Parliament.
He was shot and killed by police.
Mr. Ellwood, who was medically trained, tried to stem the bleeding and gave the policeman mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but PC Palmer died from his injuries at the scene.
Four other people also lost their lives that day.
The Defence Minister thinks the UK still faces a terrorism problem.
He said: “I think there’s some big challenges across the world in our way of life.
“Britain has to decide not just what we do to secure Britain to make us strong and safe here but also wider across the world – we have a history of doing that.”
“The inspiration for this individual killer [Masood] came from extremism and that’s not going to go away.
“These attacks won’t just disappear unless good nations like us step forward”.
Mr Ellwood also praised the nation’s spirit last year.
He said: “Looking back, I can’t help thinking that, every time an attack like this takes place, they are designed to try and destroy the fabric of our community.
“They did exactly the opposite – they actually bring us together; they make us stronger.
“Good people step forward.”
Mr. Ellwood was appointed to the Privy Council – a select body of advisors to the Queen – for his actions.
Headline photograph – (By DAVID HOLT from London, England)
