HC Deb 07 December 1989 vol 163 cc456-7
5. Mr. Bill Michie

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he last met Lord Denning to discuss the case of the Birmingham Six.

Mr. Waddington

I have not met Lord Denning to discuss this case.

Mr. Michie

In the event of the current investigation of police officers of the West Midlands force who were also involved in the investigations of the Birmingham Six finding those officers guilty of misconduct, will the Secretary of State confirm that he will again look into the case of the Birmingham Six?

Mr. Waddington

As the hon. Gentleman knows, this matter was investigated by the Devon and Cornwall police some years ago, leading to a reference to the Court of Appeal by my right hon. Friend the present Foreign Secretary. The case was looked at by the Court of Appeal over a very long period and the confessions were examined with great care. I am always ready to consider whether there is new evidence in a case or any consideration of substance that was not looked into by the trial court, but I see no circumstances now that would warrant my intervention in the Birmingham case.

Mr. Lawrence

Is not the often heard argument that, because there was a patent miscarriage of justice at one place at one time with one police force, that is evidence that there was another miscarriage of justice at another time and place with a different police force, wholly insane?

Mr. Waddington

My hon. and learned Friend is entirely right; there is certainly no direct link between the Guildford case and the Birmingham case.

Mr. Benn

Is the Home Secretary aware that the House Library contains reference to 157 answers on the Guildford case like the one that he has just given, that this matter is being examined by the European Parliament and the American Senate, and that the Prime Minister of the Republic and the primate in the North have raised it? Is he aware that in the light of what emerged in the Guildord case there is no doubt that there is new evidence now because at the time of the Birmingham Six appeal it had not been established that the police had lied? Now that that has been established that is the new evidence justifying a fresh examination.

Mr. Waddington

That is the most ridiculous proposition that I have ever heard. The fact that there was misconduct in one case in one part of the country is hardly evidence of misconduct in another case in an entirely different part of the country. The right hon. Gentleman should know better than to talk such nonsense.

Forward to