Former defence minister Sir Grant Shapps, whose father-in-law was caught up in the Manchester synagogue attack, has described a “worrying half an hour” where his family did not know where he was.
Speaking to Sky News, Sir Grant told how his wife’s father was one of the members of the congregation who tried to prevent attacker Jihad al Shamie from entering the building.
Al Shamie, 35, was shot dead by armed officers on Thursday morning, seven minutes after launching a car and knife attack while wearing what appeared to be a vest with an explosive device, which was later found to be fake.
Sir Grant urged the country to “come together” and said attacks by such “unhinged individuals” was “not who we are as a country”.
He said: “We had a very worrying half an hour where we didn’t know [what was going on with my father-in-law]. We finally found out because we had Sky News on and we literally saw him pictured on the street on Sky News and we knew he was safe and out”.
Giving his father-in-law’s account of the attack, Sir Grant said: “He had been part of the sort of crews that were manning the door. He’d been on security that morning, and he was behind the door holding them closed. They’d locked them.
“But there’s a maniac still trying to get in, and he had a knife, a seven-inch knife. He’s stabbing it against the window trying to break it. He’s trying to kick down the doors, and eventually he goes and picks up flowerpots and is trying to break the glass.”
The former defence secretary went on to describe how the attack unfolded, leading to one man who was manning a door being shot mistakenly by police.
He said he hoped the attack, which killed two Jewish men, would prompt people across the country to say: “Look, this is not the country that we are, and it’s not the people that we are.”
Politics latest: Tories targeting cuts to pay off debt, says shadow chancellor
Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were the two men who were killed in the attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Crumpsall on Thursday.
Mr Daulby, a member of the congregation, was shot accidentally when police opened fire on the attacker.
The synagogue’s rabbi told Sky News it happened as Mr Daulby “was holding the doors to make sure everyone inside stayed safe”.
Sir Grant, 57, spoke of how he had previously been to the synagogue, and the rabbi has praised the strength of community in the area.
“I’ve had that message from a lot of people, and we can’t allow this one individual to change that,” said Sir Grant.
Read more:
UK streets have turned into ‘theatres of intimidation’, Badenoch says
Police to get new powers to impose restrictions on repeat protests
In addition he criticised people who had attended pro-Palestine protests over the weekend as “bloody insensitive”.
Nearly 500 people were arrested at a demonstration in London on Saturday in support of the proscribed group Palestine Action. There was also a demonstration in Whitehall on Friday to protest against Israel’s interception of an aid flotilla.
Organisers of the protest, Defend Our Juries, said 1,000 people attended the event to “oppose genocide and the Palestine Action ban”.
Asked about whether the protests should have gone ahead following the attacks, the former Conservative MP said there always had to be a “balance” of civil liberties – with a “line drawn at some place” .
“How bloody insensitive was it for those people to go out the very next day and go and join those protests? I mean, have some humanity is what I’d say.”
He added he would support plans to limit repeat protests: “And if it requires, you know, some adjustments to the law, then I think the government in this case would have my full support.”
