John Finucane slams Tory MP comments on solicitors: “I watched my father being shot dead”

David Davis, Conservative MP for Goole and Pocklington, made the remarks on Tuesday during a debate on amendments to the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, which referred to "the activities of IRA lawyers in the courts”.

In 1989, human rights lawyer Pat Finucane was the subject of similar commons statement by another Conservative MP Douglas Hogg, who stated that some Northern Ireland solicitors were "unduly sympathetic to the cause of the IRA".

Weeks later Pat Finucane murdered in front of his young family eating their Sunday dinner. He was shot 14 times while his children hid under the table.

An inquiry found said the attack could have been prevented and found British military collusion evident in the murder.

My open letter to Conservative Party MP David Davis regarding his dangerous & disgraceful IRA lawyer comments. https://t.co/pfJkxio3EP

— John Finucane MP (@johnfinucane) October 21, 2026

"In January 1989, your Conservative colleague Douglas Hogg stood in Westminster and made similarly sinister 'IRA lawyers' remarks about solicitors. Less than four weeks later, my father, Pat Finucane, was murdered by loyalists acting in collusion with British state forces," John Finucane wrote to Davis.

"I was eight-years-old. I watched my father being shot dead in front of me, in our family home.

"I grew up without my father. I became a solicitor, following in his footsteps, because I believed, as he did, in the rule of law. In the right of every person to legal representation. In the right of victims to challenge the powerful, including the state itself.

"And that is what makes your words so contemptible.

"Would you dare speak about English solicitors in this way? Or do you believe Irish lawyers deserve less protection, less respect and fewer rights when they dare to challenge the British state?

"The lawyers you seek to discredit are doing precisely what you once claimed to defend: using the law to hold power to account. They represent families who have endured murder, collusion, cover-ups and decades of obstruction.

"We know where this language can lead. My family knows. Rosemary Nelson's family knows. But we are not living in 1989. We are building a new Ireland founded on equality, rights and justice. We will not be intimidated, silenced or dragged backwards by the prejudices of British politicians.

"Shame on you, David. Withdraw your words. Apologise to my family, to Rosemary Nelson's family, and to the lawyers and victims whose pursuit of justice you have sought to discredit. And have the decency to own the disgrace of what you said."

The President of the Law Society of Northern Ireland, Mark Borland, has also called on Mr Davis to withdraw the remarks.