Boris challenged on leak letter

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnston has been challenged over a letter he wrote which appears to suggest that MPs withdrew their support for compensation for victims of Libya-IRA terrorism.

In May the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) in Westminster said successive governments had failed in their responsibilty to fight for compensation for UK victims of weaponry and explosive supplied to the IRA by Libyan dictator Col Muammar Gaddafi.

The NIAC reprimanded the government for failing to fight for many victims who are in desperate need of financial support due to their injuries, advancing age and damaged earning ability. It recommended the government set up a bridging fund for victims if a deal with Libya looks unlikely by the end of this year. The government rejected the call, however a cross-party group of MPs met with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on 11 October to press for support.

Sources indicate that the MPs were pleased with the meeting but UUP Peer Lord Empey, who was present, said that Mr Johnston’s follow-up letter to them gave a very different record to what was actually said.

Mr Johnston wrote that the delegation had agreed with him that taxpayer’s money should not be used to set up a bridging fund for victims and that the campaign for compensation should instead set up a community fund instead.

In the letter leaked to the News Letter, he wrote to the MPs: “We concluded that UK government discussions with the Libyans should focus on exploring the possibility of a fund to focus on community support, rehabilitation and reconciliation and not on monetary compensation for individual victims”.

But Lord Empey told the News Letter: “This was not agreed by those present.” He said the Foreign Office is very worried about the process of identifying individual victims. “I don’t think there is a plot here, but HM Government at all levels has been running away from this for years.”

Former chairman of the NIAC, Laurence Robertson MP, told the News Letter that he too was present during the discussion. “The letter seems to be very different to the meeting at various points,” he said. “They [Libya] have to accept culpability and they have to pay.”

In another direct contradiction of NIAC recommendations, Mr Johnston also stated that the Government will not take the lead in fighting for the victims, saying “we do not formally espouse their claims”.

Lord Empey hopes to press the government into a Commons debate with an ongoing Private Members Bill, he said.

Mr Ihsan Bashir, whose brother was killed in the 1996 Canary Wharf bomb, said he was “disgusted” by the letter. “Is this how all victims of terror will be treated in the future?” he asked. Susanne Dodd, whose father was killed in the 1983 Harrods bomb, said he was “very disappointed” and asked how the government can say it supports victims. “It would be far better if they just said ‘we don’t care’.”