Theresa May: international relations a factor in not holding Litvinenko inquiry Alexander Litvinenko in a London hospital in 2006 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 while drinking tea at the Millennium Hotel. Photograph: Natasja Weitsz/Getty Images The home secretary, Theresa May, has admitted "international relations" were a factor in the government's decision not to hold a public inquiry into the death of poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Coroner Sir Robert Owen had requested that the government order the inquiry because he could not consider vital secret evidence as part of a normal inquest. This was backed by Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina, who said she and her legal team were "shocked and disappointed" by the government's refusal. On Friday a letter from Mrs May to Sir Robert explaining the reasons for the decision was published. It said: "It is true that international relations have been a factor in the government's decision-making. An inquest managed and run by an independent coroner is more readily explainable to some of our foreign partners, and the integrity of the process more readily grasped, than an inquiry, established by the government, under a chairman appointed by the government, which has the power to see government material potentially relevant to their interests, in secret. However, this has not been a decisive factor and, if it had stood alone, would not have led the government to refuse an inquiry. May said the government is anxious that Mr Litvinenko's death is properly investigated, and accepts that there are "important factors" in favour of establishing an inquiry. She wrote: "May I begin by assuring you that the government shares your concern to make certain that the tragic death of Mr Litvinenko is properly investigated. Like you, the government is anxious that as much as possible of the investigation is conducted in public, and in such a way that Mr Litvinenko's family are as closely involved in the process as is consistent with the public interest. Mr Litvinenko, 43, was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 while drinking tea at the Millennium Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square in 2006. Since his death his widow and son Anatoly have battled to discover the truth about what led to his killing. May told Sir Robert the inquest will be able to address key concerns. "It is the view of the government that, despite the serious concerns you express, an inquest will go a substantial way to addressing or allaying public concern about this incident," she said. It will be able to use open material, for example, to explore the circumstances in which the polonium was brought into this country, to ascertain the likely movement of the polonium and those who were apparently carrying it around the country; to expose the evidence about the events leading up to the murder. She said an inquiry would take longer and cost more than a normal inquest, and that ministers could address any remaining concerns over Litvinenko's death after legal proceedings had finished, possibly with an independent review. The question whether or not public concern remains at the end of that process is a matter primarily for ministers and one best judged at the conclusion of the inquest. Any secret evidence presented during a public inquiry would have to be held in closed session and would remain private, she said. The result would be that an inquiry would reveal publicly only that which the inquest would reveal publicly. The persons perhaps most closely concerned with the investigation, namely Marina and Anatoly Litvinenko, would learn no more from an inquiry than they would from the inquest. Sir Robert, who is considering the points in May's letter, had ruled in May that he could not hear evidence linked to the alleged involvement of the Russian state in Litvinenko's death, or whether his killing could have been prevented, in public. He said that excluding key evidence on the issue of Russian involvement would cause him "grave concern." Mr Litvinenko's family believe he was working for MI6 at the time of his death and was killed on the orders of the Kremlin.