'Who bombed Birmingham' - Passionate demand for public inquiry into terrorist pub murders
source: Birmingham Mail
published: 9 July 2025
Image Credit: cooldesign at www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A public inquiry into the Birmingham pub bombings that killed 21 people must be held as a 'national act of conscience' and to ensure those responsible for 'failed investigations and denied justice' were held to account, a city MP has demanded.
Liam Byrne, Birmingham Hodge Hill and North Solihull MP, told the House of Commons that it was a 'travesty' that 'no one from the state has ever been held accountable for the failings' linked to the 1974 murders.
In response, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis promised that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was 'considering advice' on the request and would reply 'as soon as possible' to families.
But he also suggested that an inquiry into the 'brutal' bombings might alternatively lie within the scope of the independent commission for reconciliation and information recovery, which was currently looking into the Guildford pub bombings of the same year.
"I have full confidence that the commission would have sufficient powers, resources and expertise to support the families in the process of seeking answers to their questions," said the minister.
Speaking in Parliament, Wednesday, July 9, an impassioned Mr Byrne said: “We ensured that for the victims of Hillsborough, of infected blood, of Grenfell, Windrush and the Post Office Horizon scandal, we got to the bottom of just what happened so that justice was done.
"Are the people of Birmingham somehow less deserving of justice?"
He added: “A public inquiry is not just a legal tool. It is a national act of conscience. It is how we tell the victims and their families: you matter. Your loss matters. Your loved ones will not be forgotten.“And crucially, it is how we learn. Because if we cannot understand what went wrong, then we cannot promise it won’t happen again.”
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