Tory spokesman on the Pat Finucane inquiry

News Letter

Alex Burghart MP at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham speaking about the new Labour government's approach to legacy, and its ordering of a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane. Tuesday October 1 2024 by Ben Lowry

Transcript

00:00So when Hilary Benn gave his statement on the Pat Finucane inquiry the other week

00:05I asked him how he could justify that Mr. Finucane's case was exceptional

00:14because obviously if it's not exceptional then there are perhaps

00:18thousands of other families that will ask for a public inquiry too and in

00:24Hilary's answer was that a promise on a public inquiry had been made in 2005

00:31nearly 20 years ago and I don't I didn't find that answer satisfactory I think

00:37that a great deal has changed in the interim including the establishment of

00:43the ICRIR which was deemed competent to conduct article 2 compliant

00:51investigations and the point I made to the Secretary of State was that if this isn't an

00:57exceptional case and it doesn't seem to be an exceptional case then really it

01:02should be treated as other cases are that is to say be put through the ICRIR

01:07now that because that didn't happen you've subsequently seen other families

01:09very upset that their case is being treated differently so it's it's not the

01:15decision I would have made I would have you suggested I would have put the

01:22Finucane case through the ICRIR and there have been a number of key court

01:29rulings on the ICRIR what do you think about them for example the most recent

01:34one well I've been very pleased that the Secretary of State has said that the

01:39ICRIR and Sir Declan Morgan have his confidence now that being the case it's

01:44very important I think that the Secretary of State challenges the

01:48judgment of the 22nd of September so that we can see the ICRIR carry on with

01:54its work without any ambiguity and if that's not possible or if the Secretary

02:00of State doesn't want to do that then I would strongly suggest that the

02:03government re-legislate for the ICRIR to make sure that it has the powers

02:09necessary to conduct its work whilst at the same time preserving national

02:13security. And when you say challenge just to be clear you obviously mean going to

02:17the Supreme Court? Yes absolutely, going to the Supreme Court.

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