Prime Minister Andy Burnham told victims of terrorism “we see you, we hear you, we stand with you” at a ceremony for the inaugural National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism.
The ceremony brought together victims, survivors, bereaved families, emergency responders and Government representatives, who observed a two-minute silence.
Speakers at the ceremony
They heard from security minister Dan Jarvis and survivors including Cheryl Stollery, who lost her husband in the Sousse attack in Tunisia in 2015, and Paul Price, who spent months in hospital after the Manchester Arena attack in which his partner Elaine McIver died.
Prime Minister's message
The Prime Minister said: “This day does matter, as all the speakers have said. It is our way of saying that we see you, we hear you, we stand with you, and the whole country does too.
I want to thank everyone who campaigned for this day, to make it happen.
“And the victims and survivors of more than 20 atrocities, we think of those victims today, the loved ones that you lost, but we thank those who have stood strong in all those years since, and we thank everyone who’s made the organisation of today possible.
“It matters for another, more difficult reason, and it’s one that I can talk about perhaps in a way that the other speakers couldn’t today.
“It helps bring forward change, change that the country needs, change in the way that we support people after these devastating and traumatic events.
“I know from the many hours I’ve spent with survivors in Manchester that too often people have not had the support that they deserved, and they’ve had to fight for it in the aftermath.”
