IPSWICH: Ex-Ipswich MP Chirs Mole has today sent a message of support to his former Labour colleague Stephen Timms who was stabbed twice in the stomach.

Mr Timms, 54, was reportedly left covered in blood after a woman attacked him during a constituency advice surgery yesterday.

The senior Labour MP for East Ham was said to be in “good spirits” last night as he recuperated in hospital after the incident, which happened at the Beckton Globe library in Kingsford Way, east London.

Today Mr Mole wished his former colleague a speedy recovery.

“He is very committed to working for the people of East Ham and he wanted to be accessible,” he said. “It is a terrible shame that someone has taken advantage of that while he has been doing one of his surgeries.

“I would like to wish him well and I hope he makes a speedy recovery.”

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said police were called to the attack at 3.20pm yesterday and a 21-year-old woman was arrested and taken into custody.

It is understood one of Mr Timms’ assistants, Andrew Bazeley, disarmed the woman before a security guard restrained her.

A spokeswoman for Barts and the London NHS Trust said: “Stephen Timms MP was taken to the Royal London this afternoon after being stabbed in the abdomen and is in a stable condition.”

Mr Timms, former financial secretary to the Treasury, has been MP for his constituency – and previously for Newham North East – since 1994 and has regularly spoken out against knife crime.

A Labour Party spokesman said his injuries were not believed to be life-threatening and that he was in good spirits.