25th Anniversary of 9/11

Twenty-five years ago today, on a clear Tuesday morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four passenger planes. Two were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. A third struck the Pentagon, and the fourth, United Airlines flight 93, crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew resisted their hijackers. In a period of less than two hours, the twin towers fell and 2,977 innocent people from more than 90 countries were murdered. Of those killed, 67 were British citizens, more than from any other country apart from the United States. Thousands more were injured, and many survivors, emergency workers and people who took part in the recovery operation have lived with the physical and psychological consequences ever since.

I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing forward the debate. It is only right on this day that we remember all those who lost their lives, in particular the 67 British citizens. As someone who represents a constituency in Northern Ireland that knows all too well the cruel, devastating scourge of terrorism and the effect on loved ones and first responders, I know that grief is indeed the price we pay for love. Does he agree that this House stands resolutely shoulder to shoulder with our American allies in the ongoing fight against global terrorism, wherever it may be in this world?

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his apt intervention. I absolutely agree with him: the United Kingdom stands shoulder to shoulder with the United States of America, our strongest and longest-standing ally.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned the loss of emergency workers in that brutal attack, and we celebrate and salute their courage. But we now know, since the attack, that more firefighters have died as a result of their work on the site than died on the day of the attack itself. When we remember those who died that day, we also have to think about the legacy of the attack, including those firefighters who have been lost.

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise that point, and it is one that I will come to later in my speech. I was just saying to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) that it is right that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends and colleagues from the United States, because although the attack took place on American soil, it was a global tragedy. Its victims came from across the world. Its grief crossed borders and its consequences shaped the quarter of a century that followed. The work of the 9/11 memorial and museum in New York is guided by three simple principles: to honour, to educate and to inspire. Those principles should also guide us in how we mark this anniversary in Britain: honouring those who are lost, educating those too young to remember and drawing inspiration from the courage shown in the face of terror. For those of us old enough to remember that day, the events are seared into our memory. We remember where we were when we heard the news. We remember watching the images from New York and struggling to understand what we were seeing. We remember the shock of the second plane striking the second tower when it became clear that this was not an accident, and we remember the towers falling, knowing that thousands of people were still trapped inside. But the passage of 25 years creates a new responsibility. Every child now at school was born after the attacks. Many young adults have no personal memory of 9/11. Indeed, one current Member of this House was not yet born when the attacks took place. In fact, across the United Kingdom, around 20 million people—close to three in 10—have been born since the attacks. For a growing number of our population, 9/11 is not a memory; it is something they encounter only in textbooks, in online videos or in brief references during foreign policy discussions. For them, it is history. That change is inevitable, but forgetting is not. We must ensure that future generations understand what happened, who was lost and why the attacks still matter. Young people should understand that al-Qaeda’s terrorism was driven by a murderous ideology. They should also understand the extraordinary courage shown in response.

We must also remember the families of those killed on this tragic day 25 years ago. I was working in the BBC press office at the time and remember everybody standing around watching the shocking scenes unfolding on television—horrific scenes, unseen until perhaps the covid pandemic. Does he agree that international efforts to promote tolerance and understanding to avoid another such incident of this type are vital?

I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman. We should use this opportunity of the 25th anniversary to look forward and to educate young people. As well as educating young people about al-Qaeda’s terrorism and its murderous ideology, there is an opportunity to teach them about the extraordinary courage shown in response to that ideology—from the firefighters climbing the stairs as others came down, to police officers, paramedics and office workers helping strangers to safety, and to the passengers and crew of United Airlines flight 93 whose resistance prevented many more deaths. 9/11 must never be reduced to footage of aircraft and collapsing buildings. The numbers “2977” were 2,977 individual lives—parents, children, husbands, wives, siblings, friends and colleagues, all of whom expected to return home that evening. That includes the 67 British victims, who were mentioned by me and the hon. Member for Strangford. 9/11 was an attack on the United States, but its grief crossed borders immediately. British families received the same unbearable phone calls, waited for the same news and experienced the same permanent empty place at family gatherings. I recognise those British families today. Their loss did not end when the cameras moved on. Anniversaries can bring public attention, but bereavement is lived privately day after day and year after year. Earlier this year, His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen visited the memorial in New York. They laid flowers beside the south pool, met bereaved families, survivors and first responders, and left a message honouring those who lost their lives. They expressed Britain’s enduring solidarity with the American people, and their visit was a fitting expression of the special relationship between our countries and a reminder that Britain continues to share in this remembrance. That loss also reaches into my Havant constituency. My constituent Sally Taber lost her godson Oli Bennett in the attacks. Oli was 29 years old and a successful financial journalist. He was at the World Trade Centre on 9/11 to report on a conference. Sally told me that, when she saw the TV footage, she knew her godson had died. Oli’s family, his godmother and his school friends were determined that his life would be remembered not for the terrible way it ended, but for the values he had lived. They established the Oli Bennett Charitable Trust in his memory, offering grants to aspiring entrepreneurs. Over nearly 25 years, the trust has helped 169 young people begin their dream of starting a business. The trust is now drawing to a close, but its closure does not bring Oli’s legacy to an end. It leaves behind scores of young people who were given an opportunity because his family and friends responded to an act of destruction by helping others create something new. Sally’s story reminds us that an atrocity committed thousands of miles away can leave an absence in a home and a community right here in Britain. It also reminds us why names, photographs, voices and personal memories still matter. We must therefore continue to recognise that the human cost did not cease on 11 September. The destruction of the World Trade Centre released a vast toxic dust cloud, and more than 400,000 first responders, recovery workers, survivors, residents and others were exposed during the attacks and the nine-month recovery operation that followed, as the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) rightly said, and this House pays tribute to all of them. It is also right that this year, for the first time, the ceremony at ground zero will include a seventh moment of silence, dedicated to those who died from 9/11-related illnesses. This is an important recognition that the victims of 9/11 were not only those whose lives were taken on the day itself, but also those whose sacrifice shortened their life in the years afterwards. That brings me to the role of technology in remembrance. 9/11 was one of the first great tragedies of the digital age. Millions watched it unfold live on television, and much of what survives was recorded by ordinary people using the technology available to them at the time: voicemails, telephone calls, photographs, emails, webcam recordings and amateur video. They all captured fragments of individual experience. Today’s technology allows those fragments to be preserved, connected and shared on a scale that would once have been impossible. A pupil in the Havant constituency who has never visited New York can examine a digital timeline of the morning, study primary source material and hear directly from a survivor, a bereaved relative or a first responder. That work of preservation is increasingly urgent as people with first-hand memories of 9/11 grow older. The children who lost parents are now adults. Many of the firefighters, police officers, medics and recovery workers have passed away. We cannot assume that first-hand testimony will always be available, so we must record it while we can so that it remains accessible in the decades ahead. No institution has done more to provide that access than the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York. Built on the site of the World Trade Centre, it combines the physical power of place with the evidence needed to understand what happened. Its collections preserve objects, images, recordings and personal accounts, and its educational work helps teachers to introduce pupils to an event that took place before they were born. Anyone who has visited the memorial and museum, as I have had the privilege of doing with my wife, will understand the scale of its reach. It is not only an American place of remembrance. Around 97 million people have visited the memorial and nearly 28 million have entered the museum. Visitors have come from more than 170 countries, travelling to the place where history happened to pay their respects, understand the attacks and remember those who were murdered. I thank everyone at the memorial and museum for the care and the seriousness with which they have preserved this history, supported families and helped a generation understand the attacks. I also thank the survivors, relatives, first responders and witnesses who have entrusted the museum with their memories. Sharing those experiences can carry a considerable personal cost, but it gives future generations something that no summary can ever provide: a direct connection with another person’s experience. The museum’s work should prompt us to consider our responsibilities here in the United Kingdom. 9/11 is not a mandatory topic in England’s national curriculum and, while some schools do teach it, not every pupil will learn about it. I recognise that education policy does not fall within the Minister’s Department; nevertheless, 9/11 was an international event that profoundly shaped Britain’s relationship with our closest ally. I would therefore be grateful if she addressed three questions when responding. First, will she work with the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary to examine how 9/11 is taught in schools and how resources from the museum can be made more readily available to teachers and pupils? Secondly, will she ask the British embassy in Washington and the consulate general in New York to support closer educational and commemorative links between the museum, British cultural institutions and victims’ families? Thirdly, how can the Government support British families to preserve their memories so they are not lost? Today’s anniversary is an opportunity to reaffirm our faith in democracy and decency.

I congratulate my hon. Friend very much on bringing this debate to the House. What he has said is symptomatic of the importance of the special relationship, which he does so much to support in his role as a member of the executive of the British-American Parliamentary Group. Does he agree that a point that could be added to his list would be for the Government to promote the special relationship, ensuring that generations of children coming up realise that we are really close allies and shall remain close allies with our friends in the United States, irrespective of who happens to be holding elected office at any one time?

I thank my hon. Friend for his very positive intervention and for his work as an officer of the British-American Parliamentary Group. I am proud to serve on its executive. The Minister will have heard his request, which I certainly agree with. I agree that today’s anniversary is an opportunity to reaffirm our relationship with the United States and our wider faith in democracy and decency. The terrorists sought not only to murder innocent people on 9/11, but to destroy open societies, the relationships my hon. Friend talks about and the values that sustain them. They failed. The response to hatred was courage. The response to destruction was rescue and rebuilding. The response to human lives being lost is a determination to keep speaking their names. Remembrance is not passive. Instead, it requires active choices: to teach, to preserve and to tell the stories of individuals, rather than allowing them to disappear into history. Those who remember that morning must now pass on its story to those who do not. We owe it to the people who were murdered, including the 67 British victims; we owe it to families such as Sally’s, who have carried their loss for a quarter of a century; and we owe it to future generations, who must understand both the hatred displayed that day and the courage that came in response. Inscribed in the 9/11 museum’s memorial hall are words from Virgil’s “Aeneid” “No day shall erase you from the memory of time.” Inspired by Virgil’s poetry, we must ensure the victims of history’s deadliest terrorist attack are never lost to time. That is a responsibility carried by each generation, including ours, and it is one that we must always honour.

I am very grateful to the hon. Member for Havant (Alan Mak) for securing this important debate. He spoke movingly and has given the House an opportunity to mark the 25th anniversary of the deadly terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. Twenty-five years on, it can be tempting to think of 9/11 as a moment in history—an event, perhaps, for a textbook, museum or documentary. Those, of course, are important, and I will come to them later, but for thousands of families, 9/11 is not history at all; it is a memory deeply felt of someone who left home that morning and never returned. So today we begin with them. We remember the nearly 3,000 people killed in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. We remember the victims from more than 90 countries. We remember the 67 British citizens who lost their lives. We stand with those who lost people they loved and those who have carried that loss for a quarter of a century. The hon. Member for Havant spoke movingly about his constituent Sally Taber and the loss of her godson, Oli Bennett. I pay tribute to Oli and offer my deepest sympathies to Sally, to all his family and to all those who knew and loved him. The charitable work established in his memory is a truly powerful example of how a life can continue to inspire hope and opportunity for others. We should also remember and honour the extraordinary courage that was shown that day by the firefighters who climbed the stairs of the World Trade Centre while thousands of people were trying to escape, and by the police officers, paramedics and ordinary members of the public who did extraordinary things, putting the safety of others before their own. Passengers aboard Flight 93 acted with remarkable bravery. As my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) said, many first responders lost their lives, but others have lived with the physical and mental effects of what they experienced. Their courage deserves more than our admiration; it deserves our lasting remembrance. The courage we remember today was individual, but the response that followed was truly collective, as the hon. Members for Christchurch (Sir Christopher Chope) and for Strangford (Jim Shannon) have told us. For 25 years, the United Kingdom and the United States have stood together in remembrance, and we do so again as we mark this anniversary. The hon. Member for Havant asked about closer educational and commemorative links with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Our diplomatic network in the United States has worked closely with American partners and other stakeholders in support of this anniversary, and we will continue to look for opportunities to deepen US-UK co-operation in that regard. My hon. Friend the Minister for the Americas represents His Majesty’s Government at commemorative events in New York today, including at the National September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero and at a special memorial at the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden. There, he will join victims, families, survivors, first responders, American representatives and international partners. Here in the United Kingdom, the anniversary was marked this morning with a special changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace. It echoed the special programme of music played there on 13 September 2001, when the British and American national anthems were played as a clear signal of our unity and support. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary stood alongside the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, Warren Stephens, to remember. They were joined by representatives of victims’ families and UK emergency services. Those events cannot undo the pain of the past, but they are a way of us saying that all lives that were lost still matter, their sacrifices still matter, and we will never forget what happened. The hon. Member for Havant rightly focused on our responsibility to pass the memory of 9/11 on to a new generation. Many of us remember where we were when we heard the news, and my hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Matt Turmaine) reflected on that powerfully, but many young people have no memory of that day; many were not yet born. Future generations should understand what happened and why it mattered. Education should explain clearly the harm caused by terrorism. It should tell the stories of the victims, and it should recognise the courage of the first responders. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum plays a vital role in preserving such stories and helping new generations understand both the scale of the attacks and the individual lives affected. Wider digital archives allow people around the world to hear testimony, see photographs and explore historical records, and the UK is playing its part too. Through institutions such as the National Archives, records connected to September 11th are being preserved so that future generations can continue to learn from them. The hon. Member for Havant asked about how 9/11 is taught and remembered in schools, and I will ensure that his points are drawn to the attention of my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary and the Minister for the Americas. The attacks of September 11th demonstrated, with truly tragic clarity, why our collective security matters. Following 9/11, NATO invoked article 5 for the first time in its history, because our allies recognised that an attack on one was an attack on all. In the years that followed, British and American service personnel would stand side by side once again in Afghanistan. Many never returned home, and we remember them today, too, and recognise the lasting impact on veterans and military families. Today, this House has come together to remember those who lost their lives, honour the courage shown that day, and stand with the families and communities whose lives were changed forever. As we mark this 25th anniversary, let us remember that behind every single statistic was a person, behind every headline was a family and behind every act of remembrance is a promise: “You will never be forgotten.” Question put and agreed to.