The man accused of murdering Sir David Amess MP told police only hours afterwards that it was a terrorist attack, a court heard.
Sir David, the MP for Southend West, died after he was stabbed more than 20 times during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, denies charges of murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
The trial at the Old Bailey heard how Mr Ali told police officers he "killed an MP".
Jurors were told that in his first police interview at Southend Police Station, he was asked by PC Jody Grogan: "Mr Ali, is this a terrorist attack?"
To which he replied: "I mean, I guess yeah I killed an MP and I done it yeah."
Asked if anyone else was involved Mr Ali said: "I was by myself completely."
Mr Ali was being interviewed at 17:45 GMT on 15 October, about five-and-a-half hours after Sir David was stabbed to death.
The police interviews, seven in all, were videotaped and are being played to the jury.
The suspect told police: "I thought one of the most just targets from my perspective…. would probably be maybe the MPs who carried out… a vote to carry out airstrikes in Syria."
Asked how he chose Sir David, he said: "I typed in on Twitter 'MP's surgeries'… he tweeted about a recent surgery he'd done and there was a contact number.
"He was the easiest. I settled on him."
Mr Ali told police he had "bottled" carrying out an attack on previous occasions.
"There's been a lot of times where I've gone out in my head with the plan to do something and then I would come back home," he said.
"I felt like if I didn't do it yesterday I probably wouldn't."
He said the first MP he thought of attacking was the cabinet minister Michael Gove, but he had decided not to go to Mr Gove's house in London because the secretary of state for communities and levelling up had split up with his wife Sarah Vine.
Mr Ali said he had also gone to London MP Mike Freer's surgery in Finchley.
Talking about the attack on Sir David, he said: "It's hard. You see a man alive, and then he's dead."
But a few moments later he told police: "Obviously I killed someone yesterday, there's no doubt about that, but it still doesn't really feel like it."
Mr Ali, who is thought to have been on the phone to his sister when he was arrested, said he was mostly worrying about his own family that day.
"The only reason I dropped the knife in front of the police officer was because my sister was on the phone crying her eyes out," he said.
Mr Ali said he felt he had an allegiance to the so-called Islamic State and wanted to be seen as an "Islamic State militant".
The trial continues.
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2022-03-25 13:14:54Z
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