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(left to right) Rohit Pathak, Denise Walker, 58, former catering corps veteran from Glasgow, and Anthony Johnson, 67, veteran and protester, participate in a march outside Parliament (Lily Shangaher\/PA)<\/p>\nA debate over withdrawing the legal protections established by the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which shield veterans from being prosecuted for historic actions between 1969 and 2007 during Operation Banner, took place at Westminster Hall on Monday.<\/p>\n
MPs critical of the move suggested it would open a \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d against veterans who served to protect citizens across communities in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The debate followed a public petition against repealing the legislation which attracted more than 170,000 signatures.<\/p>\n
Conservative MP John Lamont, who opened the parliamentary session, said the rollback could lead to \u201ctwo-tier\u201d payouts for figures such as former Republican politician Gerry Adams.<\/p>\n
Mr Lamont said: \u201c[The change] could result in a six-figure payout for Mr Adams, simply because his interim custody order was not considered by the secretary of state, but rather a junior minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is simply outrageous.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen a lot of examples of two-tier justice since the Labour government came to power, but this may simply be the worst of all.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the Government really contemplating creating a system to drag northern Irish veterans through the courts, whilst potentially paying millions to terrorists?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should also be clear about the differences between the actions of soldiers and terrorists. When terrorists get up in the morning, they go out with murderous intent to use violence to attack our democracy. Soldiers do not.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Legacy Act is by no means perfect, but it is better than the disgraceful spectacle of veterans being dragged through the courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing so is not sustainable \u2013 legally or morally.\u201d<\/p>\n
(left to right) Rohit Pathak, Denise Walker, 58, former catering corps veteran from Glasgow, and Anthony Johnson, 67, veteran and protester, participate in a march outside Parliament (Lily Shangaher\/PA)<\/p>\n
Others echoed Mr Lamont\u2019s comments, highlighting the implications the rollback could have on the armed forces in future conflicts.<\/p>\n
Conservative MP Sir David Davis argued the change would mean that British soldiers would be abandoned by the country they served.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cGetting this right is not just a matter of historical justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe legal witch-hunt won\u2019t end in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll cast a shadow over every future conflict that our armed forces engage in, and undermine their abilities to defend us.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThose who freely talk about human rights would do well to remember that our rights, our law, our democracy and our nation were protected by the very veterans that are at risk today.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo let us all make one promise, that no British soldier will ever again be abandoned by the nation they have so bravely protected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other MPs voiced their support in favour of the Government\u2019s proposals, arguing that the current act is not fit for purpose.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Louise Jones suggested that the lack of support for the legislation among victims, politicians across parties in Northern Ireland, and veterans themselves meant it ought to be repealed.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cThis Legacy Act has been found to be unlawful. It gives immunity to terrorists, and it denies justice to the families of the 200 service personnel that were murdered by terrorists during the Troubles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not supported in its current form by victims, it\u2019s not supported by a Northern Irish party, and many veterans are troubled by it. It must go and be replaced, and I call on the minister to outline how we can protect veterans from malicious lawfare of any conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a huge duty here in Westminster to work with those communities not against them, and I hope everyone here will reflect on that important undertaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn pointed to statistics from the Centre for Military Justice that show that only one British soldier has been convicted since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.<\/p>\n
He suggested that this was the case over the 27 years, despite immunity for British military personnel not being enshrined in law for the majority of this time.<\/p>\n
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Catriona Wallace, a veteran and protester (Lily Shanagher\/AP)<\/p>\n
Mr Benn also argued that the changes would allow incomplete investigations into the deaths of soldiers to reopen.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cLegacy is hard. This is the unfinished business of the Good Friday agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is why we need to listen to the many families who lost loved ones, including the families of British service personnel, who served so bravely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are more than 200 families of UK military personnel who are still searching for answers 30, 40, 50 years ago about the murder of their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Police Service of Northern Ireland recently confirmed they had 202 live investigations into Troubles-related killings of members of our armed forces, and a further 23 into the killings of veterans.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach and every one of those investigations was forced to close by the Legacy Act, and we will bring forward legislation to deal with that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other challenge is the lack of confidence in the act on the part of communities in Northern Ireland, which we are going to seek to reform.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe owe it to all these families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A debate over withdrawing the legal protections established by the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-265911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114855173484795023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}