Sir David Amess's family 'betrayed and angry' as government refuse inquiry

Sir David Amess's daughter has said the government's decision to not hold a national inquiry into his murder has left his family "betrayed and angry".

The Conservative MP for Southend West was murdered by Islamic State sympathiser Ali Harbi Ali in 2021 as he held a constituency surgery.

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper rejected the MP's family's call for a national inquiry into his death.

His daughter, Katie Amess, told Sky News' Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge she is in "utter disbelief" the government thinks they "should be happy" with an initial inquiry into her father's death as she said it was purely a "paper review" without an investigation or interviews.

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"We're in utter disbelief and we're completely heartbroken all over again," she said.

"We just feel betrayed, ignored, let down and also angry because, why are we having to fight so hard for an inquiry?

"This inquiry should have happened immediately after his death. Nobody wants to help me and I just don't understand why."

Ms Amess said her father was friends with everybody, whatever their race, religion, economic status or political affiliation.

She revealed when he died they received many letters from people who said they were his best friend, which showed just the kind of person he was.

Earlier, Ms Amess and her mother, Lady Julia Amess, spoke at a news conference where Ms Amess said the authorities had let her father down "so badly" and that his death had been "brushed under the carpet".

She urged Ms Cooper to reverse her decision, saying: "Do not let my father's murder be forgotten.

"Do not let his death be just another statistic."

Ali, who was given a whole-life sentence, had been referred to the anti-terror programme Prevent before the attack.

A review into his murder found he was released from Prevent "too quickly", with his case closed five years before the attack following one meeting at a McDonald's to deal with his interpretation of what is forbidden under Islamic law.

The late MP's daughter, who is also taking legal action against Essex Police and the Home Office, has dismissed that investigation as "another useless paper review conducted by a person of their choice".

In a tearful statement, she accused Ms Cooper of having "strung" the family along for "months" by suggesting she "was working on ways to help us".

Read more: What is Prevent?

She told reporters: "How can the government justify holding inquiries for other tragic events like Southport and Nottingham and yet refuse to investigate the very system that failed my father?

"Is his life worth less than others?

"Does our family not deserve the truth like other families and to know that what happened will never happen again?"

She said all Ms Cooper had done was "remove the possibility of us being included in the Southport inquiry; instead offering another useless paper review, conducted by a person of their choice".

In a direct message to the government, she said: "I want Sir Keir and Yvette Cooper to know exactly what the consequences are when the very government agencies that are set up to protect people like my dad, and members of the public, fail.

"Doing paper review after paper review into what happened, like what they have done since the day my dad was murdered, is simply not enough."

Ms Cooper rejected the Amess family's calls for a public inquiry in a letter to the late MP's widow and his daughter, seen by the PA news agency.

In it, Ms Cooper said it was "hard to see how an inquiry would be able to go beyond" terrorist killer Ali Harbi Ali's trial and the recently published Prevent learning review.

Lady Julia and Ms Amess said the prime minister should "go away and reconsider the government's position" ahead of a family meeting with himself and Ms Cooper on Wednesday.

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Outlining the government's reasoning for refusing a public inquiry, security minister Dan Jarvis said he did not believe such a step would "unearth any information that has not already been assessed".

"In the years since this cowardly attack, there have been several reviews asking how this could have been avoided, and we have seen significant improvements to the Prevent programme as well as stronger protections for MPs," he said.

"We understand that the Amess family are still looking for answers and we take this incredibly seriously.

"While we do not think a public inquiry would unearth any information that has not already been assessed, the home secretary has confirmed that we will further scrutinise all the reviews that have taken place over the last few years.

"We very much hope this will help the family to get the justice they deserve."

(c) Sky News 2025: Sir David Amess's family 'betrayed and angry' as government refuse inquiry