By PA News Agency-
Former Conservative justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland KC (PICTURED)will lead an independent review into state failings prior to the murder of MP Sir David Amess
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Ali had been referred to anti-radicalisation scheme Prevent seven years before he killed the veteran MP but his case was closed in 201
In her letter, Ms Mahmood said Sir Robert “brings deep expertise and a thoughtful, sensitive approach”.
The former justice secretary also previously served as secretary of state for Wales, prisons and probation minister, and solicitor general.
In response to the appointment, Ms Amess told PA her family “welcome the opportunity to meet” Sir Robert ahead of the review.
She said: “We are grateful that Shabana Mahmood has now appointed Robert Buckland to lead this review.
“Sir Robert is someone we respect and we welcome the opportunity to meet with him and ensure that the questions our family has been asking for years are finally addressed.
“However, we must be clear: what we have always sought is a full statutory public inquiry. A review is not the same thing.
“Our father was murdered in circumstances that raise serious questions about security, prevention and whether opportunities were missed to stop what happened.”
“We will engage with Sir Robert in good faith, but we will continue to press for the transparency and accountability that only a full public inquiry can provide.
“We owe that to our father, and to the public.”
Last year, independent Prevent commissioner David Anderson KC conducted a review into Prevent which said Ali’s case under the scheme was deemed to have closed too early after “problematic” assessments.
Former home secretary Yvette Cooper previously wrote to Sir David’s family to reject their calls for an inquiry, which his widow Lady Amess and Katie branded “totally unacceptable” and “insulting”.
Radd Seiger, spokesman for the Amess family, told PA the appointment is a “serious and credible one”, but reiterated their calls for a public inquiry.
He said: “The appointment of Robert Buckland is a serious and credible one, and the family will engage constructively with him.
“However, this announcement does not resolve the central issue.
“What has been offered is an ‘overarching review’, not a statutory public inquiry. That distinction matters.
“A review does not carry the same powers to compel evidence, to test that evidence in public, or to deliver full transparency and accountability.”
He continued: “This case raises profound questions about how a serving Member of Parliament could be murdered in a constituency setting and whether there were systemic failings in prevention, intelligence or protection.