Families bereaved by the 2017 Manchester Arena terror attack have demanded that MI5 be fully included in the new “Hillsborough Law” designed to prevent cover-ups. In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, they ask: “How many times must MI5 show that it cannot be trusted before something is done?”
A public inquiry found that the agency did not provide an “accurate picture” of key intelligence it held on suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people and injured hundreds on May 22, 2017. The “Hillsborough Law”, currently making its way through Parliament, follows a campaign by families affected by the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which claimed 97 lives.
Barrister Pete Weatherby KC, director of the Hillsborough Law Now campaign group, said he has been “misled” by the government during negotiations over how the law will apply to the intelligence services. He said campaigners had agreed a position where a key part of the law would apply to individual intelligence officers, but the government then added a “buried” clause to the draft legislation that would prevent it from working as intended.
Mr Weatherby, who represented families at both the Hillsborough inquests and the Manchester Arena public inquiry, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that MI5 had decided to “protect themselves after the fact” and advance a false narrative. He added: “If this law is passed and they’re required to tell the truth even when things go wrong, then failures can be rectified and people can be safer in the future.”
The letter is signed by the families of Liam Curry, 19, Chloe Rutherford, 17, Megan Hurley, 15, Eilidh MacLeod, 14, and Kelly Brewster, 32. It states: “You made a personal promise that you would bring in the law. We’re now asking you to keep that promise in full by ensuring the new law applies to the security and intelligence agencies in the same way it applies to everyone else.” It adds that despite MI5 lying to the inquiry, “no one has been held to account”.
A government spokesperson said: “We are listening to feedback about how to strengthen [the law] whilst also protecting national security.” Speaking last year, Sir Keir said the legislation would change “the balance of power in Britain” to ensure the state could “never hide from the people it is supposed to serve”.
