UK and US to work closely to fight threats to politicians

The UK parliament and the US Congress are set to work more closely to combat threats to frontline politicians in the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

- KATE DEVLIN

The Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle is to write to his American counterpart stressing the importance of sharing expertise on security measures, The Independent has learned.

His intervention comes as the shooting at a campaign rally led to concerns about the safety of MPs and the risk of political violence in the UK. A bloodied Trump was rushed from the stage to a hospital after the attempt on his life and later said that a bullet had “pierced” his ear. The gunman was killed at the scene.

Kim Leadbeater, the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, said the attack on Trump raised questions about “what a civilised democracy looks like”. The Labour MP for Spen Valley told BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We are back again having that conversation about what democracy looks like, what our politics looks like. I sadly feel that we are not making a huge amount of progress in this country.”