A group of people who survived or were bereaved by terrorist attacks is due to meet the home secretary on Tuesday to call for a state-funded support scheme.
Brendan Cox, widower of the murdered MP Jo Cox and co-founder of the Survivors Against Terror (SAT), will tell Priti Patel and the security minister, Damian Hinds, that granting terror victims minimum guarantees of support should be a key part of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy.
Speaking to the Guardian before the meeting, he said: “Part of our way of saying ‘fuck you’ to terrorists is to show that survivors won’t be left to stew, but will be properly supported by the state.”
He added: “Whenever a terror attacks happens, ministers get up and talk about how we will look after the survivors, but in reality that isn’t happening.”
SAT will present Patel with a proposed terrorist survivors’ charter that guarantees them immediate financial support, rapid access to psychological support and a compensation fund. The eight-point charter also includes guaranteed legal support and a national memorial day for terrorist survivors.
It was drawn up in consultation with SAT’s network of 300 people caught up in terrorist incidents including the Manchester Arena bombing, the Fishmonger’s Hall stabbings, and the London Bridge attack.
Cox said it was vital that support was coordinated through a state-backed survivors’ hub or agency.
He said: “This shouldn’t be left to the lottery of charity. The shift that we’re calling for is one where there are minimum legal rights. That needs to happen quickly, because we don’t want another generation of survivors to go through what the survivors of the Manchester attack or London Bridge attack had, which was just a completely inadequate.”
He added: “There have been survivors who have contemplated suicide, and survivors who have ended up self harming because of that lack of support.”
Cox said state systems for terror survivors in France and Belgium were currently putting the UK to “shame”. He said: “In the UK terror survivors are treated like the victims of a traffic accident, but in France and Belgium and some other countries, attacks on civilians are seen as proxy attacks on the state and therefore the state has a duty to look after them.”
He pointed out that French citizens injured in the London Bridge attack opted to use the French government system because it is “more efficient and more generous”.
In the wake of the Fishmonger’s Hall attack in November 2019, and days before the last election, Boris Johnson promised to consult on a survivors charter.
Cox said SAT was determined to hold the government to that pledge. “Committing to a consultation isn’t the same as committing to bringing it in, so we are going to keep campaigning until we see the details,” he said.
He said the proposed support hub would absorb the Home Office’s victims of terrorism unit. “We need a sort of survivors and victims champion, as opposed to something that just sits within government and does what it is told,” Cox said.
In a statement the Home Office said: “We will continue to collaborate closely with Survivors Against Terror to ensure the Survivors Charter informs our review into the wider support package available to victims of terrorism and any subsequent recommendations of that review.”
• This article was amended on 23 March 2022 to clarify that the group was due to meet the security minister, Damian Hinds, as well as the home secretary. In the event, Patel did not attend the meeting.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.
