Tory spokesman on the Pat Finucane inquiry
Alex Burghart MP at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham speaking about the new Labour government's approach to legacy, and its ordering of a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane. Tuesday October 1 2024 by Ben Lowry
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00:00So when Hilary Benn gave his statement on the Pat Finucane inquiry the other week
00:05I asked him how he could justify that Mr. Finucane's case was exceptional
00:14because obviously if it's not exceptional then there are perhaps
00:18thousands of other families that will ask for a public inquiry too and in
00:24Hilary's answer was that a promise on a public inquiry had been made in 2005
00:31nearly 20 years ago and I don't I didn't find that answer satisfactory I think
00:37that a great deal has changed in the interim including the establishment of
00:43the ICRIR which was deemed competent to conduct article 2 compliant
00:51investigations and the point I made to the Secretary of State was that if this isn't an
00:57exceptional case and it doesn't seem to be an exceptional case then really it
01:02should be treated as other cases are that is to say be put through the ICRIR
01:07now that because that didn't happen you've subsequently seen other families
01:09very upset that their case is being treated differently so it's it's not the
01:15decision I would have made I would have you suggested I would have put the
01:22Finucane case through the ICRIR and there have been a number of key court
01:29rulings on the ICRIR what do you think about them for example the most recent
01:34one well I've been very pleased that the Secretary of State has said that the
01:39ICRIR and Sir Declan Morgan have his confidence now that being the case it's
01:44very important I think that the Secretary of State challenges the
01:48judgment of the 22nd of September so that we can see the ICRIR carry on with
01:54its work without any ambiguity and if that's not possible or if the Secretary
02:00of State doesn't want to do that then I would strongly suggest that the
02:03government re-legislate for the ICRIR to make sure that it has the powers
02:09necessary to conduct its work whilst at the same time preserving national
02:13security. And when you say challenge just to be clear you obviously mean going to
02:17the Supreme Court? Yes absolutely, going to the Supreme Court.