Birmingham pub bombings - 50th anniversary

My thoughts are with all the loved ones of those who lost their lives, the survivors, and those still affected by the events of that day.

Today marks the fifty-year anniversary of the Birmingham pub bombings. Twenty-one people never returned home and more than two hundred people were injured.

Many more in the city, not least families and friends of the victims, suffered psychological wounds that persist to this day.

Behind each of the twenty-one victims is a story of loved ones, a life lived, and of a life to live.

I want to praise the work of those who have kept the pursuit of justice alive.

Justice has eluded the victims, and their families, for fifty years after this terrible atrocity.

The fight for justice must continue.