PM under pressure to stop Troubles prosecutions
DOZENS of Tory MPS have set up a veterans’ campaign group to ensure Boris Johnson delivers on his promise to stop historic prosecutions of British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland.
The group of 40 MPS wants to make sure the Prime Minister introduces legislation to protect former troops from prosecution for their involvement in any deaths during the Troubles.
It comes as it emerged a former soldier being investigated over his actions in Northern Ireland killed himself. Friends of Eddie “Spud” Murphy fear the pressure he felt may have contributed to his death.
An agreement reached to restore power-sharing at Stormont reactivated the 2014 Stormont House Agreement, which would include a review of every death in the Troubles since 1969.
The MPS fear a possible flood of civil prosecutions against former soldiers who served in the province in the Seventies and that republican groups will use any successful prosecutions to reinforce the idea that British troops were an occupying force.
The Tory manifesto committed to “new legislation to tackle the vexatious legal claims that undermine our Armed Forces, and further incorporate the Armed Forces Covenant into law”. A Bill to enact that pledge before Easter is due to be published by Mr Johnson.
The group was formed by senior Tories including Owen Paterson, Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Mark Francois.
Sir Iain, the group’s chairman, said: “There is a great deal of concern on the back benches of the Conservative Party that the present settlement in Northern Ireland will run counter to our manifesto commitment no longer to reopen cases that were once settled, and people were told they were cleared, on a fishing trip in the hope that they might find something new.”
A spokesman for the Government said: “The Prime Minister has been clear we will end the vexatious prosecutions of veterans.
“We will implement the Stormont House Agreement in such a way as to provide certainty for veterans and justice for victims.”
We cannot yet be sure why the former soldier Eddie “Spud” Murphy took his own life last week, but his friends believe it was connected to the investigation he faced over his service record in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
The pressures faced by scores of Army veterans, most now aged 70 and above, as their actions more than 40 years ago are raked over have imposed intolerable stress on people in the final years of their lives. Prosecutions are currently pending against six ex-soldiers, with many more still under investigation. These historic inquiries have been condemned as a “witch-hunt” against people who served their country, only to be rewarded in their dotage with procedures that could see them sent to prison.
Dennis Hutchings, who goes on trial next month for his alleged part in a fatal shooting in 1974, is seeking a judicial review of the Government’s promise to protect elderly veterans from prosecution over their actions in Northern Ireland.
Johnny Mercer, the minister for the Armed Forces, has said the Government is working quickly “to end vexatious and repeated prosecution of veterans without new evidence”. Legislation is due to be published before March 18.
As we report today, Conservative MPS are sufficiently concerned to ensure the Government follows through that they have set up a campaign group. Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, chairman of the Parliamentary Veterans Support Group, observed: “Too often ex-servicemen feel as though having served their country they have now been thrown to the wolves by politicians. It’s shameful.” Indeed it is and it must end.