7 July bombings Paul Rowen MP demands Public Enquiry

Date published: 15/12/2005

Liberal Democrat MP Paul Rowen quizzed Tony Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time over his refusal to hold a public inquiry over the 7 July bombings:

Paul Rowen MP: "Could the Prime Minister explain to us why the Government has decided against a public inquiry into the events leading up to 7 July. Does the Right Honourable Gentleman not accept that for the victims and families of those involved that is the only right way forward."

Prime Minister: "I do accept that people do of course want to know exactly what happened and we will make sure that they do. There will be something in the region I think of 5 Select Committee Inquiries into this. We will bring together all the evidence we have and we publish it so that people - the victims and others - can see exactly what has happened. But I really do believe that at the present time if we end up having a full-scale public inquiry when actually we do essentially know what happened on 7th July we would end up diverting a massive amount of Police and Security Service time and I do not think that would be sensible. So I totally understand the concerns people have but I hope they will be satisfied with both the numerous number of select committee inquiries and also with the fact that we will publish the full accounts of all the information we have."

Speaking after the debate Paul said:

“The 7 July bombings were the biggest terrorist outrage to hit Britain. It isn’t unreasonable for the victims, families and Muslim communities to ask for a public inquiry. We need to know what happened, what went wrong with the intelligence gathering, and what our security services are doing to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“The Prime Minister has said that he would not call a public inquiry because it would be a waste of resources. It is never a waste of resources to allow those affected and those who have lost loved ones the chance to question those responsible for out safety and security. Ducking and diving on this and other issues by the Prime Minister is not acceptable.

“Britain also needs a chance to heal. There are so many rumours and allegations surrounding the terrible events of that day, and coming from an ethnically mixed area like Rochdale, I know how important it is to separate fact from fiction.

“Mr Blair told us that we’ve already been told what we need to know about the bombings, and that we should be satisfied with any other scraps of information he gives us. That simply will not do.”