Brandon Lewis was right to turn down a Finucane inquiry but was too apologetic in his reasoning

The government has made the right decision not to hold a public inquiry into Pat Finucane’s murder.

It would have been a grave injustice for millions more of public money to be spent on this case, on top of the millions already spent.

But it is troubling the way in which Brandon Lewis revealed the government’s way forward. He was, as the UK always is, apologetic. Why? The imbalance on legacy, which this newspaper, almost alone in the media, has been chronically for years, is a severe one. Yet still London allows itself to be lectured by the Irish government. Dublin applied particular and relentless pressure to spend yet more on this case, when a mountain of victims of terrorism are awaiting the smallest semblance of truth and justice.

Mr Lewis yesterday announced urther scrutiny and focus in this case. Where are the investigations in matters ranging from the IRA murder of judges to the Republic’s failure to get tough on terror, even after the 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement?

Worse, Mr Lewis said that he was not ruling out a public inquiry in future. That merely means the campaign for this case to get special treatment is certain to go on.

The government could begin to apply pressure on the Labour Party, which tried to humiliate ministers over this case but no — Mr Lewis seemed more interested in assuring nationalist Ireland of its devotion to this case.

And worryingly, Mr Lewis was talking of an overall approach to legacy. This is a reminder of the fact that the UK has not properly defended its essential retreat from the bad Stormont House legacy plans and that it might be largely revived.

Even Tory MPs yesterday droned on about Article Two of the European Convention on Human Rights (much cited by campaigners for a Finucane probe), as if this was the only consideration in legacy cases, when in fact such a focus is at the heart of the legacy imbalance, which is so grossly lopsided in favour of allegations against the security forces.

With such a lamentable display from Conservatives, it was Sammy Wilson MP yesterday who almost alone got to the crux of the matter: why did Mr Lewis not rule out an inquiry altogether? Or least until a Labour government comes into power, if indeed it does, and if that party has not been made to rethink its disappointing approach to the legacy of Northern Ireland.

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