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Daughter of murdered MP David Amess 'praying' for inquiry as she hits out at Tory government for refusing to meet her
21 January 2025, 20:42 | Updated: 21 January 2025, 20:58
The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess has said she is 'praying' for an inquiry as she hit out at the previous Tory government for refusing to meet with her.
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Speaking to LBC's Iain Dale, Katie Amess said her family needed answers, adding that she was more hopeful after an inquiry was announced into the Southport stabbings.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the aim of the inquiry was to "get to the truth about what happened and what needs to change".
It comes as Keir Starmer used an address to the nation on Tuesday to warn of a new breed of terrorist emerging in the UK made up of violent "loners and misfits".
Ms Amess' father, Sir David Amess, was murdered while holding a constituency surgery on October 15, 2021.
She said it felt like a "slap in the face" that the previous government refused to meet with her after her father was killed.
"I am extremely glad that these families are going to get some answers and some accountability," Ms Amess told LBC. "That is what they deserve. And I just pray that I will be given the same opportunity.
"The Met Counter Terrorism Command, at the time of my father's trial, advised people not to speculate [and that it] would be examined more fully during an inquest.
"That is an inquest that we have been denied and that I have actively been campaigning to get resumed.
"I petitioned the Conservative government, I've petitioned the Labour government, and every person I ask doesn't seem to be able to help me.
"I'm praying that now, the Southport situation, it looks like they're going to get some answers. Hopefully I can get some answers. And not just me. These aren't isolated incidents.
"We've got numerous cases of prevent failing. We've got the London Bridge stabbings, the Streatham stabbings, the friends that were stabbed in a park, the device that was detonated on a Tube. It's not isolated incidents. And just one case of prevent failing is one too many.
"We need to hold people accountable. We need answers and we need some kind of reform and some kind of change to the system because right now it is just not working."
Daughter of Sir David Amess speaks to Iain Dale | Watch in full
Ms Amess also revealed that both former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and then Home Secretary James Cleverly refused to meet with her or her mother.
"It is an absolute slap in the face and my dad would be furious," she said. "How dare the victims' families be treated this way. We wrote letters, we tried to meet with them, they even came to Southend and didn't tell us they were coming and then did a speech about how wonderful my dad was.
"When I've gone on to do a campaign to try and get it reopened...I haven't heard from Rishi Sunak. I haven't heard from James Cleverly. And I've made it very clear that they have upset my mother and I.
"Anna Firth, who was my dad's successor, she did try and help us. She was told 'no, we're not going to help' and I don't understand why.
"I want to know why we are not being allowed a chance to know what happened. They claim it was an admin error and the guy wasn't followed up on. They expect me to just be like 'ok, that's fine' and go away.
"No, that's not acceptable. An admin error is forgetting to make a duplicate photocopy of something or forgetting to CC someone into an email. It's not allowing a terrorist to go free back into the community and then to kill an innocent person.
"So I don't accept that and they need to answer me and also I want apologies."
Yvette Cooper reveals more details about Southport killer
On her lobbying Yvette Cooper, she said: "I'm hopeful that she will and let's hope I'm not eating my words.
"I think now the Southport case is going to have an inquiry, there is absolutely no reason why Yvette Cooper, who was my father's friend, would not allow me to have my inquiry.
"I really pray that Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper are going to see sense and, as I say, not just me but all the other people who will also be saying 'Well what about us? Why can't we have any answers? Why is nobody being held accountable for what happened to us?'"
She added: "I don't want to speculate on what may or may not be, all I know is how I've been treated and it's very rudely, very disrespectfully and my dad worked for this country for 40 years helping people."
