Grieving parents feared the horrific shooting tragedy at their children’s school was being used as a publicity stunt by John Major, new documents from 1996 have revealed.
Official Government papers, released by the National Archives at Kew, show that in the wake of the deadliest mass shooting in UK history, distressed parents thought the then Tory prime minister was going to U-turn on a pledge of support.
Correspondence shows how Dunblane Primary School’s board of governors became concerned that then Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth had abandoned a promise to demolish the gym hall – the scene of the shootings –and rebuild it with government funds.
The Cabinet Office files give an insight into the government’s handling of the , which saw Thomas Hamilton shoot dead 16 schoolchildren and one teacher, Gwen Mayor, on March 13, 1996 before killing himself.
The event remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history. It led to the Cullen inquiry and a UK ban on handguns.
In a letter to Major written only a fortnight after the shootings, school governors accused the government of “manipulating” the community for political gain.
Parents’ spokesman Gerry McDermott wrote to Major to express “the great distress in Dunblane” over reports that Forsyth was going to abandon a promise to directly fund the rebuild of the school hall.
Forsyth and Major had visited the scene of the tragedy and spoken to parents. The politicians had delivered an assurance about the demolition and rebuilding of the gym hall.
McDermott decided to write when he became aware of claims that Forsyth would abandon the idea in favour of using public donations instead. His letter stated that “such an apparent change of heart and broken promise is a cause of great distress in Dunblane”.
He wrote: “I, on behalf of the school board, look to you to clarify in writing exactly what the government will do.
“If there is no intention to fund the rebuilding of the gym, as you promised, this requires to be clearly stated so that the community knows where it stands.”
He said that if claims of Forsyth’s U-turn were true, he wished “to put on record my extreme disappointment in the manner in which this bereaved community has been manipulated, maximising media opportunity, yet failing to deliver a widely reported promise of assistance”.
The letter sent Whitehall into a spin of urgent inter-departmental memos and an immediate response was sought from Forsyth, who wrote back to the parents that day.
He told the governors there was no truth in the suggestion.
Forsyth wrote: “I simply cannot understand where the report came from ... we stand by (the) commitment.”
He also conveyed his regret that the board decided to asked the prime minister for assurance directly before approaching him.
“A phone call to my office would have clarified the misapprehension,” he wrote.
The government later met the £2million cost to refurbish the gym, which was pulled down in the days after the disaster.
The Cabinet Office files contained dozens of telegrams of condolence from world leaders such as the then Russian president Boris Yeltsin and former Czechoslovakian leader Vaclav Havel.
The first reaction, drafted in haste for the prime minister, reveals how even the top of government was left reeling by the shootings.
It stated, with a missing “t” in the word “act”: “No words can convey the shock and sorrow brought about by this mad and evil ac. It is beyond belief that so many young lives have been so brutally ended in this way.”
The tranche of newly released official correspondence also revealed a handwritten note from Forsyth to the PM, thanking Major’s wife Norma for being “marvellous” during a visit to the grieving community. “It cannot have been easy for her,” Forsyth wrote.
