Yvette Cooper has been accused of “adding salt onto an open wound” after rejecting calls from the family of murdered MP Sir David Amess for a public inquiry into the killing.
In the letter addressed to Sir David’s widow, Lady Julia Amess, and his daughter, Katie Amess, the home secretary said it was “hard to see how an inquiry would be able to go beyond” terrorist killer Ali Harbi Ali’s trial and the recently published Prevent learning review.
Responding in a statement, Lady Amess said Sir Keir Starmer should “go away and reconsider the government’s position” ahead of the family’s meeting with the prime minister and the home secretary on Wednesday.
Ms Amess said Ms Cooper’s words were “adding salt onto an open wound”, describing her reaction to the letter as “sadness, betrayal, pain and just heartbreak really”.
She also accused the home secretary of having strung the family along for months, suggesting she “was working on ways to help us”.
In her letter, the home secretary said: “I am aware that you have since requested a full public inquiry.
“As you will know the coroner looked carefully at whether to resume an inquest into Sir David’s death following the criminal trial, but concluded there were no additional questions that could be answered through an investigation of this kind, that had not already been considered as part of the trial.
“In the circumstances it is therefore hard to see how an inquiry would be able to go beyond what has been reviewed in the trial, Prevent learning review, coroner’s report, as well as Lord Anderson and Essex Police’s forthcoming conclusions.
“On that basis, the government cannot establish a public inquiry.”
Ali had been referred to Prevent seven years before he killed Sir David on 15 October 2021, but his case was closed in 2016.
The so-called Islamic State fanatic stabbed the veteran MP at his constituency surgery in Essex and was sentenced to a whole-life order in 2022.
Ms Amess said her family had not had the chance to properly grieve following her father’s death and still felt she was “begging people to give me some answers”.
Giving an emotional statement to a news conference in Westminster on Monday, she said there are “no words to describe the unbelievable pain of losing a father in such a brutal and a senseless way”.
She added: “His murder has left an unimaginable void in my family’s life that no amount of time will ever heal, and it’s difficult to explain what life is like when you lose a loved one to murder.
“Unless you have lived through something like this you will never truly understand it.”
Ms Amess continued: “How can the government justify holding inquiries for other tragic events like Southport and Nottingham and yet refuse to investigate the very system that failed my father? Is his life worth less than others?
“Does our family not deserve the truth like other families and to know that what happened will never happen again?
“Yvette Cooper has strung us along for months, suggesting that she was working on ways to help us. However, all she has done is remove the possibility of us being included in the Southport inquiry; instead offering another useless paper review, conducted by a person of their choice.”
Ms Amess said she wants “the authorities and the government to be held accountable, as they let my father down so badly”.
“His death was entirely preventable – and where do you go from that?”
During the press conference, a spokesperson for the family played a video of Sir Keir Starmer, when he was leader of the opposition, saying there were “many questions” to be answered in the wake of Sir David’s murder.
The spokesperson said: “There you heard the words of Sir Keir Starmer himself: there are questions to be answered. Those questions that need answering still need answering today.”
Addressing the prime minister directly, they added: “Sir Keir, we’re coming to see you on Wednesday. Please reconsider the government’s position.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp added to pressure on the government, saying there are “still questions relating to this case that need answering through an inquiry.”
“We know that the Prevent learning review identified a number of failings in the way that Prevent handled the murderer of our late colleague, and that there had been opportunities for further intervention.
“So whilst we welcome the fact the new Prevent commissioner will conduct a further review, there are still questions relating to this case that need answering though an inquiry”, he said.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said the government will “further scrutinise all the reviews that have taken place over the last few years” in the hope it will “help the family to get the justice they deserve”.
“While we do not think a public inquiry would unearth any information that has not already been assessed, the home secretary has confirmed that we will further scrutinise all the reviews that have taken place over the last few years. We very much hope this will help the family to get the justice they deserve,” he said.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the government “understands that the Amess family is still looking for answers”.
“David Amess’s murder was an awful tragedy. Our thoughts continue to be with his family and friends”, the spokesperson said, adding that the government has previously launched “several investigations asking whether this could have been avoided”.
“Significant improvements have been made to Prevent as well as stronger protections introduced for MPs,” the spokesperson said.
“We understand that the Ames family is still looking for answers... In addition to the action already taken, we asked Lord David Anderson, the interim Prevent commissioner, to examine whether the recommendations from the review to Sir David have been fully implemented and to deliver the change required.”
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