Slain MP’s daughter: Review is paper exercise that doesn’t mean anything

The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess has said a counter-terrorism review linked to his killer is “a paper exercise” that “doesn’t mean anything”.

Katie Amess told the PA news agency that she first saw the review of how Ali Harbi Ali was dealt with under the government counter-extremism scheme Prevent in March last year, but was not legally allowed to speak about it publicly.

After a similar report relating to Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was released last week, the Government agreed to publish the Prevent learning review relating to Ali’s case.

Ms Amess said: “I’m glad that everybody can see the utter stupidity that I have been talking about with this organisation.

“But this review doesn’t actually help me. It’s just a paper exercise.

“There was no form of investigation in terms of meeting with anybody to do with the perpetrator, or anybody to do with Prevent and the learning channels that he should have been on.

“It was literally going through paper trails and email logs. It’s a paper exercise. It doesn’t mean anything.

“We need an inquiry. We need answers. We need accountability.”

Sir David’s family and former MP Anna Firth are calling for a public inquiry into the handling of the case, including how police and local authority staff were unable to see Ali had been radicalised into an Islamist extremist.

He was referred to Prevent by a teacher in 2014, amid concerns about falling grades and changes to his behaviour including wearing Islamic dress rather than western clothes.

A review of documents relating to the referral, and a subsequent counter-terrorism scheme Channel, found no reference to the fact he was an Isis supporter.

The records mention his wish to move to a Muslim country, and concerns over whether listening to music, co-education and paying interest on student loans was permitted under his interpretation of the religion.

In fact he had been radicalised online, and by 2016 he had gone as far as buying the knife with which he would eventually commit a terrorist murder.

That year he was deemed to be at low risk of radicalisation and his case was closed.

Ms Amess believes that the Southport murders of three young girls could have been prevented had there been an inquiry in the wake of Sir David’s death in 2021.

She said: “Three-and-a-half years ago, I should have had an inquiry, and then possibly we wouldn’t be in this situation again, because it’s the same profile of terrorist. It’s a lone person, self radicalising.

“They say what they want to the authorities to make them go away, and then they go on to commit these terrible attacks.”

She also criticised Prevent staff for only meeting with Ali once.

“They only had one meeting with him. They took him for a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, so not sure how much scope there was to find out his plans to kill an innocent person. How much can you learn in a little meeting like that?”

The actress went on: “What kind of a system do the Government believe that is literally taking people out for coffee, them saying they’re not a terrorist and then sending them on their way. That is absolutely disgraceful.”

There are parts of the report published today that were redacted that she is still unable to speak about publicly, on the grounds of national security.

She has made a complaint to Essex Police over a threat made to her father the night before he was murdered, believing that had the force sent protection he may not have been killed.

Watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct has referred the matter back to the force to investigate itself, although security minister Dan Jarvis told the Commons on Wednesday that the Home Secretary has been asked to be kept updated.

Ms Amess believes that key questions can only be answered as part of a public inquiry.

She said: “If it’s a public inquiry, we can get an idea of the background of the guy, what was known about him to authorities?

“Perhaps he was known to MI5? Nobody’s asking those questions in the run up to the attack.

“We can look at…the role of Essex Police. We can look at the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of Prevent because clearly it wasn’t very effective.”

She went on: “I don’t want to hear this ‘lessons are learned’, ‘changes have been made’.

“No, they haven’t, because six months ago, three tiny, innocent little children were brutally killed.

“And nobody’s listening to me, and nobody wants to answer me and take accountability, and it absolutely stinks.”

“I won’t be going away until I get the answers that my father deserved,” she said.

“He worked for 40 years for this country and his people who he absolutely loved.

“He is owed the decency and the respect to investigate how his colleagues and his alleged friends failed to protect him.”