Man is arrested after a viral video appeared to show someone spitting on murdered MP Sir David Amess's statue

Essex Police held a man in his thirties at a Westcliff-on-Sea address on Friday morning, and he remains in custody. He is being questioned on suspicion of a public order offence and criminal damage. The clip seemed to show a man filming himself spitting repeatedly on the statue on Southend's seafront. The family of Sir David Amess said they were 'deeply upset by what they have seen'.

The incident reportedly came just days after the fifth anniversary of Sir David's death.

The footage has since been deleted from TikTok.

Sir David was stabbed to death at his Leigh-on-Sea constituency surgery in October 2021.