MPs pledge to block veterans witch-hunt

NEW moves to continue the witch-hunt against Northern Ireland veterans could be blocked by Tory MPs, ministers have been warned.

The Northern Ireland Office is expected this month to unveil its latest plan to deal with “legacy” killings from the Troubles.

Its consultation last year, which got more than 17,000 responses, proposed creating a Historical Investigations Unit (HIU) that “may do anything it thinks necessary”.

But in their response to the consultation, veterans groups warned that this would hand the HIU dictatorial powers. The creation of the HIU would require an Act of Parliament.

Last year a third of the parliamentary Conservative party – 106 MPs – plus 55 peers from across the political divide wrote to Theresa May urging her to “defend the defenders” and stop hounding veterans.

Conservative MP and former Armed Forces minister Mark Francois, who helped organise the letter, said yesterday: “While we have not yet seen the draft legislation, there are very strong feelings in the Commons on this matter and any Bill which threatens to continue the witch-hunt against veterans is likely to face strong opposition in the Commons.

“As we told the Prime Minister, we intend to ‘defend those who defended us’ and ministers would be wise to take note of the feeling in the House.”

The warning was delivered during talks with Attorney General Geoffrey Cox before Christmas and party whips have also been made aware of potential resistance by their own MPs.

Mrs May, who has described the current balance of investigations in relation to the Troubles, as “patently unfair”, has already told MPs that she is “fully aware of the strength of feeling in Parliament and amongst the public on this important issue”.

During the Troubles between the late 1960s and 1998 more than 3,500 people were killed including 722 members of the armed forces and police.

Government figures suggest that 60 per cent of killings were caused by Republican terrorists, mainly factions of the IRA, 30 per cent by Loyalist paramilitaries, and 10 per cent by members of the security forces “who in almost all cases were acting within the law”.

Four veterans, three of them elderly, are facing trial over killings in the Troubles in 1972 despite having been cleared at the time. Hundreds more face reinvestigation.

By contrast, under former Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s Good Friday Agreement in 1998, more than 500 convicted terrorists were released early and 300 on-the-run letters or “letters of comfort” were issued to suspected terrorists telling them they would not be pursued.