“Sir” Tricky Dicky Ottaway, the absentee Tory MP “for” Croydon South, says he is afraid of being murdered in his own office, following an incident at his office in Purley on Friday which saw him call out the police when fewer than a dozen of his own constituents turned up to attend his regular monthly constituency surgery.

Croydon South’s stayway MP Richard Ottaway: won’t listen to his constituents

The constituents who wanted to lobby their own MP as their representative to parliament included one 81-year-old woman OAP and comprised several people in their 50s. One of them said that they felt “quite intimidated” by Ottaway’s manner that evening.

“If you want to have a surgery, you make an appointment,” Ottaway, one of parliament’s most notorious MPs’ expenses claimants, yesterday told a local free paper which was following up a report which first appeared on Inside Croydon. Read our original report here.

Earlier this month, “Sir” Tricky Dicky used the national media to criticise the police over their handling of the Plebgate case. Ottaway is an old friend of Andrew Mitchell, the former Conservative chief whip who was forced to resign when he was accused of calling police on security duty in Downing Street “plebs”.

“Sir” Tricky Dicky holds one constituency surgery at the offices of the local Conservative Association in Purley each month. His “surgery” last Friday lasted barely 40 minutes.

Ottaway has been MP for Croydon South since 1992, but he has never moved home to the constituency. In the week of the Croydon Riots in 2011, Ottaway left town to go off on a sailing holiday.

Despite representing a London seat, throughout his parliamentary career, Ottaway consistently made claims from the public purse for a second home, amounting to around £140,000 between 2001 and 2009 alone. He was made a knight in the recent New Year’s dishonours list, which the Daily Mail described as an example of “Cronyism and low-level corruption”.

Yesterday, he excused his wasting of police time to prevent constituents attending his regular MP’s surgery by saying, “One person had made an appointment and I discovered by accident in the afternoon that she had invited an unknown number of people to join.

“We are quite sensitive about security nowadays.

“A couple of my Parliamentary colleagues have survived attempted murders at their surgeries and we don’t give appointments to people if we don’t know who they are. It’s as simple as that.

“I let the person who had made the appointment in and the rest stayed outside.

“I notified the police as per the guidance on security for MPs. It is a perfectly straightforward security thing. Any one of those people can make an appointment to see me.

“If I discover than 10 unknown people are to descend on my surgery, I will be notifying the police in the future.”

Today at Westminster Hall, Sir Tricky Dicky has an adjournment debate about the multi-million pound losses at the Croydon NHS. Ottaway neither lives in his constituency nor listens to his constituents, so it is unclear on whose behalf Ottaway is acting in parliament today.

Perhaps the Daily Mail had a point?

Coming to Croydon

• Holocaust Memorial concert, Jan 25
• STDLCC Screening: Winter Nomads, Jan 27
• Renaming ceremony for Lake Conan Doyle, Feb 1
• Coulsdon and Purley Debating Society, Feb 3
• Babylon at the Spread Eagle Theatre, Feb 4-6
• Steve Knightly at Stanley Halls: Feb 5
• Purley Swimathon: Feb 8 and 13
• Mark Steel at Ashcroft Theatre, Feb 12
• Norwood Society talk, Upper Norwood Library, Feb 20
• Mr Pooter comes to Croydon, Feb 20-22
• Stop the Incinerator fund-raiser, Feb 24
• Coulsdon and Purley Debating Society, Mar 3
• Norwood Society talk, Upper Norwood Library, Mar 20

• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, a residents’ or business association or local event, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com