The mother of Martyn Hett has spoken out against critics of her campaign to tighten up venue security.
Figen Murray says she wants the campaign for 'Martyn's Law', to protect the public in memory of her 29-year-old son, who was one of the 22 who lost their lives after the Ariana Grande gig on May 22, 2017.
- which calls for mandatory bag searches and metal detectors at large-scale public venues - has attracted some criticism due to the potential cost of increased security.
She has also faced opposition from some who claim that the measures she wants venues to take would ‘push the problem outside’.
But today, a day before the second anniversary of the tragedy, Figen told This Morning that the cost ‘shouldn’t come into it’ when talking about people’s lives.
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The Manchester Evening News has backed Figen's calls for change.
She told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield: “What price to you pay on a human life? We lost Martyn and 21 other people died. Ask those families - the cost shouldn’t come into that. And if the worst comes to the worst, which mother would mind paying a couple of pounds more for a ticket to keep their child safe?
“I did not set the campaign up light- heartedly. I have looked into it, I have had many and still have discussions with experts in the field of security.
“There are ways round it - the people are saying that pushes the problem outside and makes people out there vulnerable, they obviously haven’t searched the ways round it but I have. You can have staggered entry times on tickets, you can have more members of staff, more open doors to push queues quicker. There are ways around it.”
Figen also gave an update on the travels of her handmade teddy called Jordan Bear, which has so far been all over North America, Bali, the Cayman Islands, Ibiza, Rome, South Africa, and Dubai.
Figan sent the ‘peace bear’ out with a note asking people to pass him on to others on their travels - and it has come back safely to Manchester.
It looks as though his next trip has already been arranged after Schofe asked permission to take him on his own holiday during half term next week.
Figen said: “Yes, absolutely.”
Figen also paid tribute to her son, and spoke of how TV-loving Martyn was due to visit New York and visit the set of Wendy Williams’ chat show.
At the time Wendy honoured Martyn’s memory on the episode he was supposed to visit, and even saved what would have been his chair in the audience.
“My husband said the other day he was a one-man party,” she said, speaking of her son. “He loved life and lived it 100mph he embraced life and everything on offer.
“That show was the first thing he was going to do in New York. He was going to fly there and spend two days on that show - he loved the programme that much, sadly he never made it.”
The Martyn's Law petition is available here.
