Home secretary meets Birmingham pub bombings families

Twenty-one people were killed in two blasts in November 1974, but it would take another 45 years for their inquests to be heard

Families campaigning for a public inquiry into the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings say they are "closer than we ever have been" following a meeting with the home secretary.

Twenty-one people were killed in the attacks and 220 injured.

Inquests in 2019 highlighted the role of the IRA, but nobody has been prosecuted since convictions for the Birmingham Six were quashed in 1991.

Priti Patel talked with the families on Wednesday.

She said it fulfilled a promise to meet when Covid-19 restrictions allowed and thanked the families for their "incredibly powerful and moving accounts".

Ms Patel said she would "continue to look into this case" and her "deepest sympathies remain with all those who were affected by these terrible events".

However, as recently as March, she had said a public inquiry would be "inappropriate" while a police investigation remained active.

Speaking after the meeting in the offices of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Julie Hambleton, whose sister Maxine was killed in 1974, said it had gone better than anticipated.

Priti Patel told the families of the victims she would "continue to look into this case"

Ms Hambleton said while the home secretary had "made no commitment to give us what we want" there was a promise for legal teams to work together "to discuss the way forward, of how to structure us potentially having the public inquiry and what that will entail".

"From that, we can only but hope that from these discussions that that will hopefully take place much sooner rather than later," she said.

"We believe it will be within a matter of months.

"We've had to wait nearly 47 years to get this far and she said that she works and acts with integrity. Well, we will keep her to that word."

'Close the book'

The families said they also gave their views on proposals for legislation to end prosecutions linked to The Troubles in Northern Ireland, which they described as "obscene and abhorrent".

On Wednesday, a letter signed by 10 MPs called on the Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis to explain the plans which they said would not only "close the book" on the pub bombings, but "slam the door shut" on the families' "long, brave campaign for justice".

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Addressed to Mr Lewis, it called on him to look the families "in the eye" and explain the government's reasoning.

Earlier this month Mr Lewis presented the proposed statute of limitations to the House of Commons.

It would prevent legal proceedings against "all Troubles-related incidents" and is believed to apply to attacks on the mainland of the UK, as well as Northern Ireland.

It would affect both former military veterans and ex-paramilitaries in cases predating the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Mr Lewis said the statute would "address the legacy" of Northern Ireland's past, saying the Troubles continued to "cast a long shadow" over the nation and its communities.

Mrs Hambleton, however, said ministers would not be "so quick to agree to such obscene legislation" if one of their loved ones was "blown up beyond recognition".

The letter was signed by:

• Louise Haigh MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

• Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley

• Tahir Ali, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green

• Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood

• Steve McCabe, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak

• Jack Dromey, Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington

• Preet Kaur Gill, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston

• Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr

• Liam Byrne, Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill

• Andrew Mitchell, Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield