Comment May and Rudd have washed hands of pub bomb families

Secretary, are refusing to help.

Their refusal comes even though there is a clear precedent for providing support.

Families of the 96 football fans who died in Hillsborough in 1989 were given funding and there’s no reason why the Government can’t do the same again.

But without financial support, the new inquests into the Birmingham pub bombings, due to begin in November, become pointless affairs.

The Birmingham pub bombings on November 21, 1974, were one of the worst terrorist attacks in British history.

Bombs planted in two Birmingham pubs, the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town, killed 21 people and injured 182 others.

But no inquest into the deaths has ever been completed.

Only the most preliminary stages were carried out, because a criminal investigation was on-going.

The investigation led to the wrongful conviction of six men – the Birmingham Six – who were eventually released in 1991.

At long last, the inquests are to be resumed. The chief coroner of England and Wales, Peter Thornton, has been drafted in to oversee hearings and a pre-inquest review hearing is scheduled for 28 Novem- ber 2016. Hearings could last two years. And representatives of West Midlands Police and, I’m told, both the Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service (known as MI5 and MI6 respectively) may have questions to answer.

They will be represented by skilled legal teams. Annual accounts published by West Midlands Police in June revealed it has set aside £1 million for lawyers’ fees.

Of course, the coroner will have plenty of questions to ask.

But the role of the families themselves in challenging evidence and seeking answers will be vital – just as it has been in other inquests, such as that into the Hillsborough deaths.

In fact, the Hillsborough inquests began in March 2014 with the families or their representatives reading profiles of all those who died. So far, the Birmingham families have been represented free of charge by Belfast-based lawyers KRW Law.

But after two years of pro bono work, this cannot continue.

And so far no funding has been offered. Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced in September that she was refusing the families’ request for a fund similar to that created for the Hillsborough families. Instead, she told them to apply to the independent Legal Aid Agency.

The Government has made a lot of sympathetic noises about the families’ chances of receiving legal aid.

This week, Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons: “We are hopeful that that decision will be a positive one.”

But in reality, the Prime Minister and Ms Rudd have washed their hands of the issue.

They cannot tell the Legal Aid Agency what to do as it is an independent body. Or if they can, they certainly haven’t.

It’s unclear whether the money will be provided, and the families have been given indications that it may only come on condition they drop their current legal team – which they are understandably unwilling to do.

The Birmingham families are in a desperate situation. Local MPs have rallied behind them, and Andy Burnham, the senior Labour MP who fought for the Hillsborough families, is now backing their campaign.

But time is running out. Unless the Government thinks again about funding, there is a real danger that the truth about the Birmingham Pub Bombings might never be told.

The Birmingham families are in a desperate situation