‘They took him for cup of coffee!’ Sir David Amess’s daughter lets rip at REPEATED failures by Prevent as she shares her own devastating story

The daughter of late MP Sir David Amess has revealed that she “begged and pleaded” for an inquiry into her father’s murder, as she highlighted the “failures” of the Home Office and the Prevent programme.

The Labour Government has announced an inquiry into the Southport attack of July 2024, after it was revealed that killer Axel Rudakubana, 18, was referred to the Government’s anti-extremism scheme Prevent three times, but no intervention was made.

Reflecting on her father’s murder in 2021 by Ali Harbi Ali, Amess told GB News that after he was also referred to the Prevent scheme, he was “let go” after being “taken for a coffee” by those running the programme.

Amess explained: “They took him out for a cup of coffee, he said he wasn’t a terrorist, and then they let him go back into the system. They were meant to have a subsequent meeting with him, and due to an admin error, it was never followed up on.

“And then obviously, he went on to kill my father. And I’ve been calling for the resumption of the inquest, and I’ve not been allowed that. I was denied that.”

Stressing how she “begged and pleaded” for an inquiry, Amess stated that the previous Government “shut her down”.

Amess added: “The Conservative Government totally shut me down. They wouldn’t let me do any kind of inquiry, wouldn’t take meetings with me, would ignore my letters. I begged, I pleaded. So then I tried the Labour Government.

“I haven’t heard from Yvette Cooper since they’ve announced that there will be a full inquiry into the Southport killings, but I was told absolutely no inquiry would be allowed because it would give away secret information that would be in the report.

“So I don’t understand what could be in my report that is not top secret, that would be in the Southport report.”

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Highlighting that the failings of Prevent are “not isolated incidents”, Amess expressed her concerns for other individuals being let back into society without intervention.

Amess stated: “This is not an isolated incident of Prevent failing, we have numerous cases of them letting the people back into the community and then go on to commit those atrocities.

“The answer can’t just be it was an admin error, that’s not acceptable.”

Calling for changes to the Prevent scheme, Amess admitted that while she is glad the families of the Southport victims are being given an inquiry, there is still something “hugely wrong” with the system and how the scheme is run.

Calling for communication from the Labour Government, Amess concluded: “There’s got to be some more deeply involved, rigorous way of understanding or trying to understand what the person is thinking so that we can monitor them better, and then not just have an admin error and let them go back into the community.

“Something is hugely, hugely wrong with the system, and I’m so glad that the Southport victims’ families are going to be able to have an inquest.

“Keir Starmer said no stone will be unturned, it will be robust, we will get to the bottom of this – that is wonderful and that is the way that it should be for absolutely everybody that Prevent has failed.”

She added: “They can’t pick and choose and nitpick who they’re going to help and who they’re not going to help, so I fully expect to hear from Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper to confirm that I will also be getting an inquiry into how Prevent failed me.”