PM urged to block Lords seat for MEP in IRA bombing controversy
THE ex-Brexit Party MEP accused of failing to condemn the IRA attack on Warrington should not join the House of Lords, a Labour MP demands.
Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols has written to Prime Minister Boris Johnson after Claire Fox was named as a new peer on Friday.
At the time of the 1993 outrage, which killed two children and injured 56, Ms Fox was a leading figure in the Revolutionary Communist Party.
The party defended “the right of the Irish people to take whatever measures necessary in their struggle for freedom”.
Ms Nichols wrote: “The nomination of Ms Fox has caused revulsion. I urge
you to block her nomination. To allow Ms Fox to be a Life Peer shows crass insensitivity to victims of terrorism.”
Colin Parry, whose 12-year-old son Tim died in the bombing, said: “Claire Fox never apologised for the Revolutionary Communist Party defending the bombing. Now she is offered a Peerage. This offends me and many others deeply.” The Provisional IRA put two bombs in bins. No warning was given. Tim died of his injuries five days later. Johnathan Ball, aged three, died instantly.
Ms Fox said: “I do not support or defend the IRA’s killing of two young boys in Warrington.”
No 10 said: “Claire Fox has acknowledged the pain families of the victims of terrorism have faced. She is not a Conservative peer.” The latest row erupted after 350,000 people backed a petition to scrap the Lords after the PM moved to pack it with 36 new peers - including his brother and a Tory donor.