PM must prioritise Birmingham pub bombings inquiry, say victims’ families

Julie Hambleton and George Jones, who are still campaigning 50 years after the death of Julie’s sister, Maxine, and George’s father, Cliff. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Relatives of the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings have said “England’s biggest unsolved mass murder of the 20th century” should be at the top of the government’s list as they renewed their calls for a public inquiry on the 50th anniversary of the atrocity.

On 21 November 1974, 21 people were killed and 220 injured when bombs exploded in two Birmingham pubs, in an attack widely believed to have been orchestrated by the Provisional IRA.