The families of the Birmingham pub bombing victims will receive less in legal aid for their four-decade fight for justice than the coroner spent on a PR team, it has emerged.

As part of a £3.6million spend which included barristers and solicitors, the coroner's team spent £200,000 on PR consultancy firm Crest Advisory, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

It is understood that the families, who were forced to fight to get any legal aid whatsoever, will receive a “tiny fraction” of that - less than was spent on the media team.

Julie Hambleton, whose elder sister Maxine was killed in the 1974 attacks, said: “It is outrageous. There is no equality of arms.”

The costs do not include the money spent by other public bodies which were legally represented at the inquest, including West Midlands Police.

The inquest in front of Coroner Sir Peter Thornton QC, which ended in April, concluded that the 21 victims had been unlawfully killed and a botched warning by the Provisional IRA had caused or contributed to their murders.