Families affected by the Manchester Arena bombing have said the UK's domestic intelligence agency, MI5, must be included in a new law to prevent cover-ups after security services adopted a “false narrative” during an official inquiry.
The attack in 2017 killed 22 people and injured hundreds. In a letter sent to Prime Minister Keir Starmer seen by the BBC, the families questioned how many times MI5 would show “it cannot be trusted” before it is forced to become more open to scrutiny.
"MI5 failed our loved ones and failed us,” they said. "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.”
The inquiry into the bombing found MI5 had not given an “accurate picture” of the intelligence it held on suicide bomber Salman Abedi, who detonated a rucksack bomb at an Ariana Grande concert. He and his brother Hashem used a step-by step video guide to build a shrapnel-packed explosive.
Abedi died in the attack, while his brother was jailed for life for assisting with the terrorist plot with a record 55-year minimum term in August 2020. The inquiry found their attack could have been stopped if MI5 acted on key intelligence in the months before the blast.
In 2024, more than 250 survivors filed a lawsuit against MI5 over its failings. Mr Starmer has introduced the so-called Hillsborough Law in Parliament, formally known as the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, which will force public officials and contractors to tell the truth in the aftermath of disasters. The law follows campaigning by families of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 Liverpool football fans died during overcrowding at an FA Cup match in 1989. Police were later found to have withheld evidence of their own failings and falsely blamed fans for the crush.
There are now questions over the extent to which security services will be covered by the new law, which could lead to the prosecution of public officials if they do not tell the truth during investigations.
Pete Weatherby, a barrister representing the Manchester Arena families, said there were concerns that MI5 would be treated differently to police and other public officials, despite pledges that the agency would not be “carved out” of the legislation.
He acknowledged that national security must be protected, but said that in the case of the Manchester attack, MI5 had “chosen to protect themselves after the fact and advanced a false narrative”.
He said the problem was not whether evidence should be disclosed, but that evidence given in hearings, or revealed to families or the public, “must be the truth”. “MI5 shouldn’t be given free hand to run a false narrative to protect themselves rather than to advance truth and justice,” Mr Weatherby told the BBC.
In December, a judge ruled that almost £20 million ($27.1 million) is to be paid to children injured in the bombing. Amounts from £2,770 to £11.4 million were agreed to at a hearing at the Manchester Civil Courts of Justice for 16 victims, all aged under 16 at the time of the attack. The total to be paid is more than £19.9 million.
Some people suffered “catastrophic” and life-changing injuries in the bombing, while others suffered psychological damage from witnessing the carnage.
In the letter, the families said: "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.”
