The campaign to win legal aid for Birmimgham pub bombing families is coming to the House of Commons.

Birmingham MP Richard Burden has secured a debate on the topic, and he will explain to Government Ministers why funding must be granted for justice to be done.

Other MPs are expected to back the call during the hour-long debate, to be held Tuesday March 27. A Government Minister will have to respond at the end.

Mr Burden said: "This is simply about fairness and parity. Justice demands no less."

It comes after Justice4the21 campaign group, which represents the families of those killed, were denied legal aid for their bid to ensure that the people suspected of carrying out the 1974 bombings can be identified.

Coroner Sir Peter Thornton, who is overseeing a long-awaited inquest into the deaths, has ruled that suspects cannot be named.

Coroner Peter Thornton QC
Coroner Peter Thornton QC

The families contested that ruling at the High Court and won. The Coroner responded by taking the case to the Court of Appeal , where the families will have to fight their corner again - but they have been told they cannot receive funding for legal representation.

In practice, it places them at a huge disadvantage.

A total of 21 people died and almost 200 were injured when IRA bombers attacked city centre bars The Mulberry Bush and The Tavern in The Town on November 21, 1974.

And Mr Thornton’s controversial decision to exclude the perpetrators from the scope of the inquest means that it will avoid issues such as who bombed Birmingham, who organised the bombing, who ordered it, who made the bombs, who planted them and who their associates were.

The victims of the Birmingham Pub Bombings

The families believe that all of these issues are vital to get to the truth behind what happened, and must be included if the inquest is to be fair and transparent.

Mr Burden said: "For years, families of the victims have already had to overcome many hurdles to get answers about what happened on that fateful day of 21 November 1974.

"They had to fight for an inquest in the first place and they had to fight to be granted legal aid.

"They eventually won that battle, but now they have once again been denied legal aid."

He said the Coroner has every right to take his argument about not naming the suspects to the court of appeal, but the families also had a right to put their side of the argument, and this could not happen if there was no funding.

"On Tuesday I will be asking the Government why the families are being denied legal aid.

Richard Burden
Richard Burden MP

"If the rules do indeed prevent regular legal aid being granted as the Legal Aid Agency claim, I will also be asking Ministers to directly authorise public funding to be made available to the families outside the regular legal aid framework.

"All Birmingham MPs back this call."

The Coroner, whose fees will be paid for by the public purse, has said the he believes the families should get public funding to be represented at the Court of Appeal.

Nonetheless, legal firm KRW LAW LLP, which represents the ten families, has said there will be no financial support for them because they are not deemed to be financially eligible.

The latest legal aid blow came after the Justice4the21 campaign group had to raise £20,000 via Crowd Justice to pay for the judicial review at the High Court.

The money was collected after a previous legal aid application was rejected.

The Birmingham Six were later wrongly convicted of the 1974 bombings after a flawed police investigation. They served almost 17 year behind bars in one of Britain’s most infamous miscarriages of justice before their sentences were quashed and they were released.

The Tavern in the Town had been crowded, mainly with young people when the bombers struck

That should have resulted in inquests, which were originally opened in 1974, being properly concluded, but they were never resumed.

In 2016 Justice4the21, backed by The Birmingham Mail, successfully campaigned for a new inquest to be opened.