The daughter of the murdered MP David Amess has criticised Home Office failures that meant her father’s killer was unmonitored for years before the attack, saying the Prevent programme “isn’t fit for purpose”.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Katie Amess condemned the fact her father’s killer was known to authorities but his case was closed due to “an admin error”.
“We know the guy did it,” said Katie. “I just want to know how and why he was allowed to … What has been changed to ensure that this never happens again and that another family doesn’t have to go through the absolute heartbreak and trauma that has just shattered our world?
“My father gave 40 years of his life, day in, day out, to his people and his country. He is owed the decency and the respect to find out where he was failed.”
Ali Harbi Ali was convicted of stabbing Amess to death on 15 October 2021 at a church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where the Conservative MP had been holding an advice surgery for people in his Southend West constituency.
It was later revealed that Ali had been referred to the government’s anti-radicalisation Prevent programme, and then for more intensive support through the Channel counter-terrorism programme, before his case was closed. He went on to spend at least two years researching which MP to murder.
He told police he had carried out the killing because he was angered by western actions in Syria and saw himself as a soldier of Islamic State.
Katie Amess said the family were told Ali’s case was not followed up in the programme “due to an admin error” that meant a second meeting with the then 18-year-old did not take place.
The newspaper reported that Lincoln Brookes, the senior coroner for Essex, said there had been “some shortcomings” in the Prevent programme and Ali’s case was closed even though problems had not been addressed.
Brookes said “record-keeping is problematic and the rationale for certain decisions was not explicit” and “an opportunity to assess whether or not any progress had been made was missed”.
However, the coroner concluded that the programme would not necessarily have prevented the attack and that it “would be speculative to assume that national security services do, should or could, detect and track every Islamic State sympathiser”.
Amess’s family pushed for an inquest to consider the state’s failings in the run-up to Ali’s attack, but in July Brookes ruled there was not enough evidence to justify holding one.
Katie Amess, an actor who lives in California, said she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, while her mother, Julia, 70, who was married to Amess for nearly 40 years, had moved out of the family home of three decades in Southend because it was too painful to stay.
“It’s just the most unbearable, unspeakable pain. We’ve lost a great, great man who can’t be replaced. Now I just want to make him proud by fighting back against being told no to something that we should be allowed to know. I can’t accept this,” she said.
“He was reported. People were trying to help us. And so why was he allowed to just go on and do whatever he wanted for seven years? What happened to my dad should not have been an admin error.”
The family wants greater protection for all MPs and is pushing for more answers about what happened to Amess and how his killer evaded authorities for so long.
“It’s pretty obvious that Prevent isn’t fit for purpose, it has consistently failed people,” Katie Amess said. “It failed me. It failed my family catastrophically, it failed the public and also it failed other members of parliament.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Our thoughts continue to be with Sir David Amess’s family and friends. The attack on Sir David Amess was an awful tragedy, the safety of members of parliament is paramount and significant work has been taken forward in response to his tragic killing.
“Prevent is a vital tool to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism and tackles all ideological causes of terrorism.”
