Dear Boris, any more secrecy around Libya will be an insult to IRA victims

As you know, we represent the victims of Libya-sponsored IRA terrorism.

To recap, in 2006 my firm brought class action proceedings before the US District Court on behalf of 152 claimants and an estimated class of around 4,000, including both US and UK citizens. This case was McDonald vs Libya.

In 2008, the US-Libya Claims Settlement Agreement was signed between the USA and Libya which stayed McDonald. This resulted in the US claimants in McDonald receiving millions in compensation but the UK claimants getting nothing.

In 2009, after much campaigning against this inequitable treatment, my firm was given a dedicated Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) unit to support our endeavours in seeking a just settlement (parity of treatment) from Libya for the UK claimants.

In 2011 the Gaddafi regime fell and I travelled to Benghazi, Libya, where I secured an agreement from the newly-recognised government of Libya to pay the UK claimants parity compensation (the ‘Benghazi Agreement’).

After Her Majesty’s Government failed to take steps to ensure that Libya recognised this agreement, in 2015 my firm requested and got a parliamentary inquiry conducted by the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC).

In 2017, the NIAC found the government to have failed the victims and recommended that Her Majesty’s Government enter into effective government-to-government negotiations with Libya on behalf of the UK victims, and it should establish and finance a reparations fund (to pay out ahead of the outcome of such negotiations).

The government rejected the NIAC recommendations.

In 2018, we met with you while you were Foreign Secretary. You were a breath of fresh air. You wholeheartedly recognised that sincere, strenuous, and transparent efforts should be taken by the government to facilitate a solution.

We recommended that an independent Special Envoy be appointed to review the situation in the hope that this might break the impasse. We were very pleased when you embraced this proposal. You left your position as Foreign Secretary. William Shawcross was appointed to the position of Special Envoy. Nothing else occurred and no action was taken by the government to resolve the matter.

Following some delays, Mr Shawcross finally submitted his report to the Foreign Secretary in March.

Last week, we were surprised and dismayed to read that, in a response to a written question by Lord Empey asking when Mr Shawcross’ report would be published, the FCO replied that “ministers will consider the report in detail in due course, including whether to publish any elements of it”.

Not only does this response from the FCO imply that the report has not yet even been considered (at least not in any detail) but it has concerned and distressed victims that it may not even ever be published.

Whatever the case, the spirit of transparency and working together that you embraced has sadly not transpired since you left the FCO.

We write to ask that, as the Prime Minister, you remind the FCO of why the decision to task Mr Shawcross with producing this report was made in the first place: so that independent and impartial recommendations could be made to the government as to how this matter can be justly resolved for the benefit of the UK victims.

We appreciate that Mr Shawcross’ formal terms of reference note that it was intended to be an internal report, and that the Foreign Secretary has discretion whether to publish its contents. However, note that we were not permitted to comment on the terms of reference before they were announced. We have always believed this was a mistake but did not challenge it at the time as we did not want to delay Mr Shawcross from starting his work.

We would caution that it would be an utter betrayal of the UK victims and the public should the Foreign Secretary ultimately decide to withhold its contents.

Since the beginning, Libya’s arming of the IRA, the Anglo-Libyan détente, and the reasons for the government’s inexplicable failure to secure compensation for the UK victims – when other states have done so for their citizens – have been mired in secrecy. It is because of a misguided desire to protect other interests (whatever they might be) that the UK victims have been unjustly neglected and ignored by successive governments.

To redact or withhold Mr Shawcross’ report, to create more secrets, would be to add further insult to injury. The UK victims have suffered enough. We ask that you intervene in this matter and now make a commitment to the UK victims that this report will be published by a reasonable deadline without redaction.

We need you to stamp your authority on this matter to drive a solution for UK victims. We remain committed to delivering justice and I remain willing at any juncture to discuss tactics and solutions to drive success for the victims and the UK. Thank you.

Yours sincerely, Jason McCue.

l Mr McCue is a senior partner at McCue Law, London. The firm also represented families of the Omagh and Hyde Park bombings. It is currently awaiting a response to this letter from Downing Street.