Like MP Stephen Timms, whose Islamist attacker has been jailed for life, Labour’s Jim Fitzpatrick supported the Iraq war. But he says he will continue to meet his constituents.
At a community centre in his Poplar and Limehouse constituency, Jim Fitzpatrick prepares once again to meet local voters.
It is one of several advice surgeries he holds each month where anyone can walk in off the street for a face to face appointment with their local MP.
And the atmosphere remains informal – despite the knife attack on Stephen Timms at a similar constituency surgery in east London.
Roshonara Choudhry attacked Stephen Timms at an advice surgery in May, stabbing him twice in the stomach with a kitchen knife over his support for the Iraq war.
The 21-year-old, who was jailed for life, had compiled research on other former Labour ministers who had backed the conflict in Iraq, including Mr Fitzpatrick.
I’m always concerned about personal safety, but it doesn’t prevent me doing my job. Jim Fitzpatrick MP
He was also named in a list posted on an American-based Islamist website of 383 MPs who had voted for military action in 2003.
Despite such threats, Mr Fitzpatrick says he does not want a security guard at his surgeries. But he admits he does take some precautions.
Mr Fitzpatrick says he has experienced just a couple of aggressive constituents during his 13 years of holding surgeries.
As he was meeting voters, fire fighters were being called to a car blaze outside.
A former fire officer himself, Mr Fitzpatrick says he learned lessons about personal safety in that job – which remain as important now he is an MP.