{"id":452024,"date":"2025-09-26T04:50:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T04:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452024\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T04:50:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T04:50:54","slug":"keir-starmer-says-new-protections-for-veterans-will-not-apply-to-paramilitaries-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452024\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer says new protections for veterans will not apply to paramilitaries \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Keir Starmer has said a deal for veterans published alongside a new legacy framework will not treat former paramilitaries the same way.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister said he was \u201cpleased\u201d on the progress that had been made after the UK and Irish governments unveiled a new approach to deal with the legacy of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The new framework, unveiled last week, contains commitments to fundamentally reform the mechanisms established in the 2023 Legacy Act.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir was asked by BBC Northern Ireland if new protections being offered to veterans engaging with legacy processes would also be available to other participants, including former paramilitaries.<\/p>\n

\"UUP<\/a>\"Bail<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the issues that didn\u2019t get resolved under the Good Friday Agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now we\u2019ve got the Irish government and the UK government in agreement on this. We have made a provision for veterans in relation to it, the protections that have been put in place. They are for veterans, in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was then asked to clarify whether the approach for veterans would also include paramilitaries, after comments from the Irish government.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir said: \u201cNo, it\u2019s for veterans, and obviously we need to make all of the arrangements workable in practise.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the next thing that needs to happen is the necessary legislation to take this forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Northern Ireland was \u201cvery, very important personally to me\u201d and that the last government had \u201cfailed\u201d on providing \u201caccountability and truth and justice\u201d for all victims.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI want it to work, and I have in my mind\u2019s eye the victims who\u2019ve waited a very, very long time for\u2026the accountability that they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the possibility of the Government engaging with paramilitary groups, he said \u201cit is our job to do whatever we can to alleviate\u201d the \u201cintolerable\u201d effect they are having on communities.<\/p>\n

The Labour leader spoke to regional broadcasters before the party\u2019s annual conference in Liverpool this weekend, amid speculation his premiership could be under threat.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister also dismissed \u201cthe personal ambitions\u201d of his potential future leadership challenger Andy Burnham, and appeared to attack the Manchester mayor\u2019s economic agenda by drawing parallels with Liz Truss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to get drawn into the personal ambitions of the mayor of Manchester. What I will say is that our fiscal rules are ironclad because they protect working people and economic stability is fundamental,\u201d he told Northern Ireland political editor Enda McClafferty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years ago this week, we had Liz Truss show us what happens if you abandon fiscal rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

He declined to be drawn on whether people in Northern Ireland should be able to vote in an Irish presidential election, ahead of the poll on October 24.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWell I think that\u2019s a matter that we all have to reflect on, but I\u2019m not going to get drawn into an answer on that now.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s something that needs to be worked through, and I\u2019m not going to get drawn on that just at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Keir Starmer has said a deal for veterans published alongside a new legacy framework will not treat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[151971,807,53475,1144,285,13136,104751,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-452024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-aras-2025","9":"tag-keir-starmer","10":"tag-legacy","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-republic-of-ireland","14":"tag-troubles","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115268805486506151","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452024","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=452024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}