A former Sunderland MP and journalist who said he knows the names of those responsible for the Birmingham pub bombings has been urged to tell police everything.
Chris Mullin, who was MP for Sunderland South from 1987 until 2010, has been urged to name the bombers who killed 21 people and injured 182 on November 21, 1974.
The 74-year-old said in 2019 during an inquest into the killings that he had given an assurance to them and the IRA he wouldn’t name them while they are alive, Birmingham Live reports.
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Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood urged Mr Mullin to co-operate fully with West Midlands Police.
He said: "We have overlooked the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings for too long.
"Chris Mullin should devote the considerable intellect and energies he devoted to the case of the Birmingham six, to bringing justice for the 21 victims of 1974.
"He must now surrender all the information he has to the West Midlands police."
In November 1974, IRA terrorists targeted two central Birmingham pubs; the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town.
The so-called Birmingham Six were wrongly convicted for the bombings and jailed for life, but the convictions were overturned in 1991 by the Court of Appeal.
Mr Mullin, a former Labour MP, helped expose the miscarriage of justice with his book Error of Judgement.
Now, detectives are seeking a high court order under the Terrorism Act 2000 requiring Mr Mullin to hand over notebooks or allow police to search his property.
If he refuses to comply with any court order he could face jail.
Mr Mullin has confirmed he will contest the order at a court hearing scheduled for February 25 and 26, on the grounds that to disclose the material requested would be a "fundamental breach of the principle that journalists are entitled to protect their sources".
He is supported by the National Union of Journalists.
In an article for think tank Policy Exchange, Mr Mahmood added: "For the families, there has been no justice, only years of frustration, characterised by too much evidence of police incompetence and establishment indifference.
"Campaigners have had to knock on doors, hard, to be heard.
"The celebrities, campaigners and researchers who flocked to the case of the Birmingham 6, took their leave once their convictions had been quashed."
In a statement last month, Mr Mullin said: "If West Midlands Police had carried out a proper investigation after the bombings, instead of framing the first half-dozen people unlucky enough to fall into their hands, they might have caught the real perpetrators in the first place.
"It is beyond irony. They appear to have gone for the guy who blew the whistle."
