Stafford’s MP Jeremy Lefroy invited constituent Joanne Perceval to the House of Commons to visit the exhibition commemorating the 200th anniversary of the assassination of the Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, to whom her late husband was distantly related.

Mr Lefroy said: “Perceval, the only Prime Minister of the UK to be assassinated, was killed in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812 by John Bellingham. His ancestor, Henry Bellingham MP, is a Foreign Office Minister. Although Mr Bellingham was abroad and unable to meet Mrs Perceval, he was kind enough to send a personal letter in which he expressed his sorrow for the action of his ancestor.”

Jeremy addeded afterwards: “Many people have not heard of Spencer Perceval, even though he was Prime Minister at a crucial point during the Napoleonic Wars and a strong campaigner against slavery and the slave trade. His connection with Staffordshire was strong, through his friendship with the Harrowby family with whom he sometimes stayed at Sandon hall. There is a shrine to him at Sandon Hall (see http://www.sandonhall.co.uk/news/2012/5/200th-anniversary-of-a-political-assassination.html).”