No one wakes up in the morning expecting to be involved in an terrorist attack

but, when you work in Westminster and, see the high threat level on the annuciator everyday, you know that it is always a possibility.

I first noticed a problem when Lindsay Hoyle, Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, suddenly suspended the House in the middle of a division. In the Whips Office all televisions are on the chamber so we immediately turned on the news to find a person had been shot outside the gates.

At the time, I thought that a person was shot on the street side but, after a few minutes I realised that the attack took place within the gates of Westminster. Sadly, I've always had a plan for just this occasion. First, we locked all of our doors, then I called all of my loved ones hoping to get in touch before the news bulletins hit. I was on the phone to my parents as the news broke in America.

To be honest, the worst part about the attack was not knowing the full situation. Parliament is a very big place. Luckily, it is also a very confusing place. It takes several months to get a basic idea of where you're going. So any random attacker is not going far before they hit a door they cannot go through or a police officer.

We are over the main internal road in the Palace. Once I saw eight SWAT team members, stacked, ready to fire down the road below us, I started the suspect the worst. We drew the curtains on all of the windows as they were facing the SWAT team and their weapons were pointed in our direction. Clearly, we all thought there were more people in the building.

All of the police services and House staff were excellent in doing their jobs given the fact that this was a fast-moving situation.

For the next several hours we were moved from place to place eventually landing in Westminster Abbey. During transit, we walked passed the person who was eventually named as PC Keith Palmer. The police were adamant that our phones were in our pockets during this time. His sacrifice has been and will be celebrated by this city and in this Parliament.

By eight o'clock it was all over. We had been processed by the police and we started to make our way back to our homes. There were three who didn't and will never return to their families. One was from Utah and on his 25th wedding anniversary.

Of that attack I'll say that, it could have been lot worse. Had the attacker had a gun this would have been much deadlier. Thankfully, it is prohibitively expensive and difficult to get a gun in this country. The attacker was taken down as soon as he breached the perimeter of Westminster and, frankly, that's how it should be. Attacking Parliament results in one of two endings. Arrest or death.

Finally, as I finish this post, the name of the attacker has been released. I think the best way to look at this attack is to ignore the name and focus on the action. The mourning period will soon subside and the anger will rise to the top. Many are frothing at the mouth to blame Islam as a religion and the Muslim community for not quelling extremists before they attack but nothing is solved by blaming this attack on a religion furthermore, I don't care what religion this person was. He had a history of violence but no terrorist offences. Based on his actions and, not his name, this was an extremist-inspired, terrorist attack that could have been conducted by anyone.

His action was abhorrent but, the goal was not achieved. We are still here. We are still working and we will still go to our homes.