Sir John Major:

I am sorry to hear about Mr. Finucane's father. "Sorry" is an empty word. I acknowledge that nothing more awful could happen. One of the great pleasures of the way the peace process concluded was that Sinn Féin was left to sit among the democratic parties. It is now open for election and its candidates are being elected in the North and the South. Sinn Féin has become a bona fide democratic and political party. That is an outcome I thoroughly welcome. It is an outcome we sought throughout the process.

I am surprised at the comments Mr. Finucane has made about collusion between the intelligence agencies and the loyalist paramilitaries. I am puzzled. I was certainly never briefed on that point. I was not aware of either of the things Mr. Finucane mentioned. I was not aware of arms from South Africa or anything else. I was not briefed with those details then and I have not been briefed on that point in the papers I have seen subsequently. I know how these things arise. I do not know whether Mr. Finucane's information is accurate and whether the people who have written about it have been accurate. I do not know if there is more to the story than there seems to be. I know emphatically that it was not a policy I was aware of either as Foreign Secretary or Prime Minister. That was not something of which I was aware. I do not know exactly what David Cameron said. I will look it up and find out what he said to see how far it goes and whether it provides a clear intimation of collusion, in which case I would certainly deplore it. This was not something of which I was aware.

On both sides of the Border, North and South, there was a great deal of discussion between some Irish politicians and the paramilitary bodies. That is beyond doubt. That the intelligence agencies were involved in similar discussions is a proposition about which I am much less certain. I can make inquiries, but I do not think that would help anybody very much at this stage. I can tell the committee that I was certainly not briefed about it. I did not actively approve of it because I was not aware of it.