Mordaunt: amnesty ‘should cover Troubles’
Defence Secretary’s words suggest decision to exclude N Ireland veterans from new scheme was not hers
allegations, Penny Mordaunt has said. The Defence Secretary’s comments suggest the controversial decision to exclude those who served in Northern Ireland from protections announced yesterday was not made by her.
Karen Bradley, the Northern Ireland Secretary, is now under pressure to halt investigations into alleged offences.
Ms Mordaunt said she feared the Government was in danger of repeating the mistakes of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team.
“I do think it [additional protection] should cover Northern Ireland,” she said during a conference at the Royal United Services Institute yesterday. “The problem is that we have failed on the whole ‘lawfare’ issue because we have been waiting for other things to happen. This is not going to be resolved overnight. It is a priority of mine.”
The MOD has submitted its concerns for consideration by the Northern Ireland Office’s consultation on how to address allegations of wrongdoing by British troops in Northern Ireland.
However, The Daily Telegraph understands that the Northern Ireland Office will announce imminently that the Historic Investigations Unit will proceed in investigating unsolved and controversial killings from the Troubles, including by military veterans.
Ms Mordaunt’s comments are being interpreted as a signal of her position to her opposite number in the Northern Ireland office. A government official said she was offering “wriggle room” to Ms Bradley to halt the investigations of former military personnel, whilst making it clear what department should be held to account for the failure to protect veterans from prosecution. Ms Mordaunt announced plans to grant stronger legal protections to British troops facing investigation over alleged offences committed in the course of duty abroad more than 10 years ago.
Prosecutions will be deemed to be in the public interest only if there are “exceptional circumstances” such as if compelling new evidence emerges.
That the legislation will not cover Northern Ireland veterans has met with a backlash, with a former head of the Army calling it a “major issue”.
General Lord Dannatt said: “It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s not the final step … it doesn’t include Northern Ireland and that’s a major issue.”
The former Chief of the General Staff told Today on BBC Radio 4 that the answer was not a blanket amnesty, because those who lost loved ones in the Troubles “deserve answers”, adding: “But what we can’t do is go forward with the presumption that those deaths involving the military were wrong.”
He said if the legislation made it to the Lords, he would push for an amendment to include Northern Ireland.