The family of murdered MP Sir David Amess have criticised an “insulting” rejection by the home secretary of their calls for a public inquiry into his death, accusing the government of “adding salt on an open wound”.
The home secretary said in a letter to Julia and Katie Amess that 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.
In an emotional press conference, the MP’s daughter, Katie Amess, said she was “so, so angry that this was how they felt this should be dealt with and such sadness at the betrayal of people that are claiming to be my dad’s friends just fobbing us off again and again and brushing us under the carpet”.
Amess’s family had hoped a public inquiry would identify previous Tory government failures in the run-up to his murder. Ali had been referred to Prevent seven years before he killed Amess on 15 October 2021, but his case was closed in 2016.
Cooper will instead appoint an independent external reviewer to look across the findings of the investigative work and scrutiny that has already been completed.
In a statement from the family, Lady Amess said Keir Starmer should “go away and reconsider the government’s position” before the family’s meeting with the prime minister and Cooper on Wednesday.
The late MP’s daughter said she was feeling “sadness, betrayal, pain and just heartbreak really” at the government’s response.
The killer, who was inspired by Islamic State, stabbed the veteran MP at his constituency surgery in Essex and was sentenced to a whole-life order in 2022.
In her letter to the family, Cooper said she could not interfere with a coroner’s decision and so could not officially support the resumption of the coronial inquest that the family had called for.
Cooper said she had to reject the request for a full public inquiry because the coroner had 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”.
She wrote: “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 [David] Anderson and Essex police’s forthcoming conclusions.
“I realise this is not the answer you were looking for. I remain keen to discuss this with you in the forthcoming meeting with the prime minister.”
Lady Amess said the government should reconsider its position for the “security of all public servants, and for every citizen who deserves to know that when the state fails”.
She said: “Despite our repeated calls, we have been denied the one thing that can provide real answers – a full public inquiry. To pour salt on the wound, Yvette Cooper has now written us a totally unacceptable and quite frankly insulting letter confirming that the government will not order an inquiry, and that all the investigations to date should satisfy us. Well, I can tell her they most certainly do not.”
Addressing what she expected from the prime minister, Lady Amess said: “He must go away and reconsider the government’s position and call us back in to confirm that an inquiry will be granted.
“Not just for our family, but for the security of all public servants, and for every citizen who deserves to know that when the state fails, it will be held accountable and that steps will be taken to ensure there is no repeat.”
Katie Amess said Cooper’s letter had left her in “complete and utter disbelief”.
She said: “I felt so sad on my dad’s behalf – he isn’t here any more to stick up for himself so I am trying to do that as much as I can, but I’m just absolutely heartbroken that Yvette Cooper could write this letter to my mother and I and think that we’re just going to go away and accept this.
“It’s adding salt on to an open wound – that’s how I see it. Sadness, betrayal, pain and just heartbreak really.”
Questioned on what she would say to the prime minister and the home secretary on Wednesday, she added: “I’m just going to plead my case and pray to God they’ll have a change of heart and realise that my dad was a human being. He isn’t just a political figure in a game of chess, he’s a human being … he should still be here with us now if it wasn’t for completely preventable actions or the actions that weren’t taken.”
Asked on Monday why the government had rejected the request, Starmer’s spokesperson said: “We understand that the Amess family is still looking for answers. Following the Southport tragedy, the government and counter-terrorism policing jointly commissioned an immediate Prevent learning review during the summer. That review identified that Prevent had significantly changed and improved in the decade since the attacker’s referral.
“But in addition to the action already taken, we asked Lord Anderson, the interim Prevent commissioner, to examine whether the recommendations from the reviewer to Sir David’s death have been fully implemented.”
