FORMER Ealing North MP Stephen Pound has paid tribute to 87-year-old Thomas O'Halloran after the OAP was fatally stabbed on his mobility scooter this week.

Mr Pound said he knew Mr O'Halloran as a former constituent during his political career.

He described him as a character who would cement the area.

In a TV interview with GB News, the former Labour MP told presenter Alex Phillips: "It's my constituency and I live about half a mile away.

"Tom was a real local character. He would be outside Greenford station playing the accordion, occasionally the harmonica. He was a sweet, lovely man.”

The 87-year-old had been collecting money for Ukrainian refugees by busking outside the station, according to reports.

Mr Pound said: “Greenford is hurting about this. We had a fatal stabbing in Acton about two days ago, when a 58-year-old woman was killed by a younger person.

"Ealing is not a dangerous, dodgy place. It's not the wild west.

"Someone like Thomas O'Halloran was a very Ealing person. He comes from the Irish community, which is very deep in our part of the world.

"The brutality, the cruelty and the evil of his death is really corrosive to us, and it will take us a while to recover."

Detectives investigating the murder have released images of a man seen running from the scene armed with a knife.