Sir Robert Buckland to lead review into failings prior to MP’s murder
Sir David Amess’s family were informed of the appointment of the former Conservative justice secretary on Monday.
Former Conservative justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland KC will lead an independent review into state failings prior to the murder of MP Sir David Amess.
The Home Secretary wrote to the Amess family on Monday to confirm the appointment following a meeting between Shabana Mahmood and Sir David’s daughter Katie Amess in January.
Ms Amess told the Press Association her family would engage with the review in “good faith” but reiterated they have always sought a “full statutory inquiry” into her father’s death.
The Southend West MP was stabbed to death at his constituency surgery in Essex in 2021 by so-called Islamic State fanatic Ali Harbi Ali, who was sentenced to a whole-life order for the murder the following year.
Ali had been referred to anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent seven years before he killed the veteran MP but his case was closed in 2016.
Sir Robert said: “The horrific murder of Sir David Amess in October 2021 shook the entire nation.
“As someone who, like Sir David, held regular open surgeries in my constituency, and who had known and worked with him in Parliament for over a decade, it made a deep and profound personal impact that lives with me to this day.
“I have accepted an invitation to conduct this independent review because I want to ensure that everything possible is done to fully identify the facts and circumstances that led up to this outrage, as Sir David’s family and all of us who care deeply about our parliamentary democracy rightly demand.”
In her letter to the Amess family, Ms Mahmood said Sir Robert “brings deep expertise and a thoughtful, sensitive approach”.
The former justice secretary also previously served as secretary of state for Wales, prisons and probation minister, and solicitor general.
In response to the appointment, Ms Amess told PA her family “welcome the opportunity to meet” Sir Robert ahead of the review.
She said: “We are grateful that Shabana Mahmood has now appointed Robert Buckland to lead this review.
“Sir Robert is someone we respect and we welcome the opportunity to meet with him and ensure that the questions our family has been asking for years are finally addressed.
“However, we must be clear: what we have always sought is a full statutory public inquiry. A review is not the same thing.
“Our father was murdered in circumstances that raise serious questions about security, prevention and whether opportunities were missed to stop what happened.”
She added: “These are not just matters for our family. They are issues of national importance.
“We will engage with Sir Robert in good faith, but we will continue to press for the transparency and accountability that only a full public inquiry can provide.
“We owe that to our father, and to the public.”
Last year, independent Prevent commissioner David Anderson KC conducted a review into Prevent which said Ali’s case under the scheme was deemed to have closed too early after “problematic” assessments.
Former home secretary Yvette Cooper previously wrote to Sir David’s family to reject their calls for an inquiry, which his widow Lady Amess and Katie branded “totally unacceptable” and “insulting”.
Radd Seiger, spokesman for the Amess family, told PA the appointment is a “serious and credible one”, but reiterated their calls for a public inquiry.
He said: “The appointment of Robert Buckland is a serious and credible one, and the family will engage constructively with him.
“However, this announcement does not resolve the central issue.
“What has been offered is an ‘overarching review’, not a statutory public inquiry. That distinction matters.
“A review does not carry the same powers to compel evidence, to test that evidence in public, or to deliver full transparency and accountability.”
He continued: “This case raises profound questions about how a serving Member of Parliament could be murdered in a constituency setting and whether there were systemic failings in prevention, intelligence or protection.
“Those are not questions that can be satisfactorily answered behind closed doors.
“The family will participate in shaping the terms of reference, but their position remains unchanged: only a full public inquiry will provide the level of scrutiny this case demands.
“We will continue to press the Government on that point.”
The Home Secretary said in a statement: “I have met with the Amess family and admire their resilience amid such tragic circumstances.
“I have appointed Sir Robert Buckland KC, an eminent legal mind, to carry out an independent review and help the family seek the answers they need.”
