The heartbroken families of those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing said “MI5 failed our loved ones and failed us” as they demanded greater transparency. In a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the bereaved relatives said the intelligence agency “hurt us further through its lack of candour”.
Spies failed to act on crucial clues that could have thwarted Salman Abedi killing 22 people, a scathing 226-page review by Sir John Saunders found. The intelligence could have led to investigators following Abedi, who had links to ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists, to the Nissan Micra where he stored his explosives.
And the Islamist terrorist could also have been stopped at Manchester Airport as he returned from Libya four days before the attack. MI5 director-general Sir Ken McCallum apologised in the wake of the inquiry.
The exact nature of the intelligence was withheld from the public report due to national security concerns.
Sir John said MI5 did not present an “accurate picture” of what it knew.
And the families have demanded that the security service be fully included in a new law designed to stop cover-ups in public life.
In the letter to Sir Keir, the bereaved families said: “You made a personal promise that you would bring in the law.
“We’re now asking you to keep that promise in full by ensuring the new law applies to the security and intelligence agencies in the same way it applies to everyone else.”
The letter adds: “MI5 failed our loved ones and failed us.
“It did so by failing to prevent the Arena bombing. But it then failed and hurt us further through its lack of candour after the attack.
“During the Manchester Arena inquiry, MI5 lied about the key intelligence it held about the suicide bomber before the attack.
“Despite MI5 lying to a public inquiry in this way, no one has been held to account.
“This lack of accountability needs to change. Creating a full duty of candour responsibility on MI5, MI6 and GCHQ is the clearest route to creating this change.
“We are dismayed that, as the draft Bill is currently written, MI5 and the other organisations are being allowed to escape the full duty of candour responsibility.
“Every security and intelligence officer should be required the tell the truth, and the leaders of the organisations should also bear full responsibility.
“How many times must MI5 show that it cannot be trusted before something is done?
“We are calling on you to keep your promise and ensure that MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are held to the same standards as everyone else.”
Barrister Pete Weatherby, who is director of the Hillsborough Law Now campaign, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday that the security service should not be given a “free hand to run a false narrative to protect themselves”.
He said: “If this law is passed and they’re required to tell the truth even when things go wrong, then failures can be rectified and people can be safer in the future.”
Campaigners understand that some evidence cannot be aired in public because of national security, he told the broadcaster.
“There are current laws which govern that which we’re not seeking to change through these provisions,” said Mr Weatherby.
“What we’re saying is, whether the evidence is given in open or it’s given in closed hearings, it must be the truth, or indeed, if it’s not given in evidence at all, but it’s told to the families or the public in general.
“MI5 shouldn’t be given a free hand to run a false narrative to protect themselves, rather than to advance truth and justice.”