WHILE medics fought valiantly to save a fatally wounded policeman after Wednesday’s attack, they were also working on the terrorist who’d stabbed him.

There are few other countries in the world where that would happen.

And this is what we are defending.

MPs, like myself, caught up in the outrage were locked in the Chamber for several hours while the drama unfolded.

I immediately called my staff, instructing them to lock their door.

Meanwhile, I sat glued to my phone, searching the internet for more news.

We learnt fairly quickly that a police officer had been stabbed, his assailant shot and that Westminster Bridge was strewn with injured pedestrians.

As this stage connecting all the pieces was impossible and I feared that the attack on Westminster might well be a diversion.

Thankfully, it was not.

Reports then began to come in that my friend and colleague Tobias Ellwood had been caught up in the whole nightmare, and indeed he had.

He’d rushed to the aid of the fallen policeman, who we now know was Keith Palmer, a husband and father.

As more time passed, we learnt that this horrific attack was the act of one man.

He’d used his car as a murder weapon, crashed into parliamentary railings, run through our front gates and stabbed PC Palmer before he was shot.

We now know that four people died, including the attacker, and that 40 others were injured, seven critically.

As terrorism haunts our streets again, I cannot help but touch on the funeral this week of another – Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander.

I’m afraid I am not another apologist for this man.

He was no different to Wednesday’s terrorist and we must never be cowed by men like these.