The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess has reiterated her calls for a public inquiry as she criticised a report into Prevent’s contact with her father’s killer, saying the review “tells us there were failures but does not say why”.
Katie Amess told the PA news agency the “vast majority of our questions about Prevent’s failures remain unanswered” and that an inquiry was the only way to ensure “real accountability”.
The report compiled by Independent Prevent Commissioner David Anderson KC said “intensive” efforts have been made to improve processes within Prevent, but the “jury is out” on some of the changes.
It also said Sir David’s killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was described as a “great person” by a counter-terrorism case officer shortly before his case was dropped by Prevent.
Ali was referred to the counter-extremism scheme seven years before the so-called Islamic State fanatic stabbed the veteran MP at his constituency surgery in Essex in October 2021.
He was sentenced to a whole-life order the following year.
Following the report’s publication, Ms Amess told PA: “Having been ambushed by the Home Secretary and given no time at all to have advance sight of Lord Anderson’s report, I have now had the opportunity to read it, digest it, and take advice from my team on what it says and what the implications are.
“There is now no doubt whatsoever, following Lord Anderson’s work, that there must be a full public inquiry into why the string of failures that led to my dad’s murder were allowed to happen, who was responsible, who is going to be held to account, and what is going to be done to ensure there is no repeat.
“We were told after my dad’s death that lessons had been, and would be, learned by Prevent. And then, heartbreakingly, Southport happened three years later.
“The two cases are virtually identical. No lessons were ever learned.”
Ms Amess said the report “tells us there were failures but does not say why” as she criticised the way his family had been treated by the Government.
She said: “When we met with the Prime Minister and Home Secretary in March to repeat our call for a public inquiry into my father’s murder, they asked my mother and me to go away and work with Lord Anderson to see if he could answer the dozens of questions we still have about why the killer slipped through the state’s safeguarding nets.
“Against our better judgment, we did just that and have been patiently waiting for his report to be published, enduring several more months of needless stress and anxiety for our family.
“It feels to us that they are treating us, but more importantly, my dad, who served this country selflessly for 40 years, like dirt on the bottom of their shoes.
“They claimed to be his friends. They attended his funeral. That is not how friends behave.
“As we can all now see, that was a waste of time. This was not a review into why my dad was allowed to be murdered at all. It tells us there were failures but does not say why.”
Ms Amess continued: “My family and I remain deeply committed to understanding how the Prevent programme failed to stop the individual who took my father’s life.
“We are determined to ensure that no other family has to endure such a loss due to systemic failings.
“Despite Lord Anderson’s review, the vast majority of our questions about Prevent’s failures remain unanswered.
“We still do not know why basic checks like social media monitoring or verifying school attendance were not carried out before the perpetrator was released from the programme. He was meant to have seven sessions. He had one, over a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, and was then released.
“That is simply not good enough, yet Anderson skates over it as if it did not lead to the catastrophic consequences that followed for my family and our country.”
Ms Amess called on the Home Secretary and Prime Minister to “do the right thing and order the inquiry”, saying it would ensure “real accountability”.
She told PA: “A statutory public inquiry is the only way to compel witnesses to testify and documents to be disclosed.
“When we met with Chris Philp, he told us that if he becomes home secretary in any future government, he will order the inquiry. He knows it is necessary.
“On behalf of my family, I now call on the current Home Secretary and Prime Minister to do the right thing and order the inquiry, just as they rightly did for Southport.
“They told my mother and me that we could come back to them if we were not happy with Anderson. Well, we aren’t, and I will be asking my team to write to them to request that further meeting they promised us.
“A public inquiry would honour my father’s legacy by ensuring real accountability and preventing future tragedies.”
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
