A Catholic priest was prevented from giving Conservative MP Sir David Amess the last rites as he lay dying in his Essex constituency because police refused him entry to the crime scene.

Father Jeffrey Woolnough arrived at the police cordon stretching across tree-lined Eastwood Road North in Leigh-on-Sea, offering to administer the Last Rites to the devout Catholic, 69, on Friday afternoon after he was stabbed multiple times by a suspected terrorist.

But police officers said “that because it was a crime scene, and also the nature of the scene, it just wasn’t possible.”

He later clarified on social media that he respected the Police’s decision and he instead prayed a rosary for the dying man from outside the police cordon.