Former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith shouts ‘shame’ at Labour plan to overturn law to stop Gerry Adams suing UK for internment
A former Tory leader has shouted ‘shame’ at a Labour plan to overturn legislation to stop Gerry Adams suing the UK for his internment during the Troubles.
Ian Duncan Smith was standing in the audience at a legacy discussion on the main stage at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester yesterday, at which delegates heard that the government had stripped away for veterans who served in the province.
During the afternoon session, the Tory Shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge MP, had told party members: “If Labour repeal our Legacy Act, we will legislate to restore full legal protection for our veterans.”
The Legacy Act, which was introduced by the Conservative government, offered a conditional amnesty for many Troubles killings, but is being overturned by Labour. This means, among other consequences, that a part of the legislation to stop the former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams suing Britain for being detained without trial in the early 1970s after a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that his internment was unlawful.
When a panel at the debate, chaired by Mr Cartlidge and including a NI veteran spokesman, Paul Young, and the Tory MP Mark Francois, explained that the legal attempt to prevent Mr Adams being eligible for damages would now be scrapped, Mr Duncan Smith – who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles – cried out “shame” from the floor.
When asked at the end of the session by the News Letter why he shouted that, Mr Duncan Smith said that the fact that Mr Adams might soon be eligible for damages again was “appalling really, when you think what he was up to”.
Mr Duncan Smith said that he strongly supported the pledge to reinstate legal protection for Troubles veterans, because as someone who served in NI himself he “knew what they were going through”.
Mr Cartlidge, to applause from delegates, argued that leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – which the Tories this week have promised to do – is necessary to protect British veterans.
He argued that not only is the Legacy Act being scrapped because it has been judged as “incompatible” with the ECHR, the convention also “undermines our ability to deter the renewed threat of war that we face today”.
He told the conference: “The most basic duty of government is defence of the realm. No government can discharge that duty if the rule of an international court overrides our sovereign right to defend this nation.
“It’s not just our Legacy Act that’s at risk, it’s not just veterans. Lord Wolfson warns that there is even a threat that our 2021 laws which protect UK forces on overseas operations could be struck down if we stay in the ECHR…
“I therefore wholeheartedly support Lord Wolfson’s conclusion that remaining in the ECHR makes it impossible to fully protect our veterans and service personnel from the threat of vexatious claims.”
The shadow defence secretary added: “If new laws are required to give legal certainty on overseas operations, we will pass those laws.”
Mr Cartlidge also claimed that the government has only bought three new drones for the armed forces in its first financial year, because of “no real extra money for defence”.