Former soldier feels ‘betrayed’ by UK government

A former British soldier who spent four years in an Indian prison has said he feels “betrayed” by the UK Government.

Billy Irving, 37, told the Mail on Sunday he could “never forgive” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and accused the Government of failing to do enough to help.

Mr Irving touched down at Glasgow Airport on Wednesday, the first of the so-called Chennai Six to arrive back in the UK more than four years after they were jailed in India on weapons charges.

He and five other British men were guards on a ship to combat piracy in the Indian Ocean but were jailed in October 2013 after being charged with carrying unlicensed firearms and ammunition.

After years of campaigning, they won an appeal against their convictions last month and have now been allowed to leave India.

Mr Irving, of Paisley, Renfrewshire, told the newspaper: “I can never forgive the UK Government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. We would have been freed much sooner if they had really engaged in our plight and fought for us. I feel disgusted and betrayed.”

Mr Irving’s fiancee Yvonne MacHugh, who campaigned tirelessly for his release, described former foreign secretary Philip Hammond as “next to useless and uninterested at best”.

She accused current incumbent Boris Johnson of “hypocrisy” for saying the FCO had worked on the case “unstintingly”.

The UK Government said the case had been raised more than 50 times at ministerial level and nine times with the Indian PM since 2013.

Billy Irving arriving back in the UK.