The MP was hailed as a hero in 2017 for trying to save the life of a police officer who was stabbed during the Westminster terror attack. But he is now embarrassed by some of his constituents after the family who owns the cat were allegedly left to carry their dying pet as the MP drove away. Ellwood is understood to have offered to provide a replacement animal. Shortly after the incident, eggs were thrown at him and windows smashed with a croquet mallet at his £1m barn-turned-barn in the village of Holdenhurst, near Bournemouth in Dorset. The incident happened as Ellwood – a former army captain who made headlines in 2017 when he went to the aid of Keith Palmer, who had been fatally stabbed by terrorist Khalid Masood outside the Palace of Westminster – was driving in a narrow lane leading to village. The Hawas family, the cat’s owners, did not want to talk in detail about the incident, but a family member told the Daily Mail: “We just want to mourn our cat. We want nothing to do with Tobias Ellwood.” A neighbor, who asked not to be named, said there was a simple reason Ellwood didn’t stop, saying: “He obviously didn’t know he had done it until then.” Julie Holland, 61, who lives across the street from the former vicarage owned by Stephanie Hawa, also 61, was less sympathetic. Holland, who has a cat called Boris, named after the prime minister, and a dog called Stanley, after Johnson’s father, said: “It’s a shame. If he had done this to my cat, I would have done something about it. But, he added, “I’m still a supporter.” A Dorset Police spokesman said last night: “We received a report at 2.47pm on Saturday 28 May 2022 of damage caused to a property in the village of Holdenhurst in Bournemouth. “Officers carried out inquiries and the parties involved were identified and interviewed. After consultation with all parties, the issue was addressed through a community resolution. No arrests were made.” Ellwood declined to comment. A friend of the Bournemouth East MP said: “The matter has been resolved.”
