Soldiers will be hounded through courts for no reason if Troubles immunity law repealed, says Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith
Repealing a controversial Troubles immunity law will see elderly veterans hounded for no reason, a senior Tory has said.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who served in Northern Ireland with the Scots Guards during the 1970s, said Labour’s plans to replace and repeal laws designed to grant immunity from prosecution for Troubles-era actions will mean elderly men who were serving their country hauled before the courts.
And shadow Northern Ireland secretary Alex Burghart said many veterans would “harbour a sense of dread” on learning of the move.
Asked Sir Iain: “Let us not forget all those soldiers, who will now in some cases will be hounded for no reason at all, but those who lost their friends and their children, who didn’t want to go there in the first place - where’s the justice for them?” he asked .
The comments came during a House of Commons debate on Wednesday night, after Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn revealed that early steps are being taken to “repeal and replace” the Troubles Legacy Act brought in by the Tories.
The Act ended ongoing inquests and civil court cases to do with Troubles-era events, and set up a facility allowing people to apply for conditional immunity from prosecution in exchange for cooperating with a new investigative body.
It came after a number of controversies involving elderly former soldiers put on trial – including Dennis Hutchings, a terminally ill 80-year-old veteran who died of Covid in 2021, three days into his court case over a fatal shooting.
HIs lawyer said the case contributed to his death, and he likely would not have passed at that point if he had not been compelled to go to Northern Ireland to stand trial over the killing of a 27-year-old man with learning difficulties in 1974.
The immunity clause was later ruled incompatible with European human rights legislation. At the time the Tory government said it was going to take time to consider the ruling, but within six months lost the general election to Labour.
On Tuesday, Hilary Benn said he wants to bring new legislation scrapping the immunity clause and removing the ban on civil cases.
He told Sir Iain Duncan-Smith: “Justice information should be, must be, available to all.
"But I would just point out that there are service personnel who lost their lives in the conflict in Northern Ireland who did not support the Legacy Act, precisely because it proposed to give immunity to people who had killed their loved ones.”
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Alex Burghart stated that the Tories brought in the legislation “to try to protect some elderly people, including servicemen who were being brought before inquests to discuss events that may or may not have happened very many years before”.
Mr Burghart added: “Tonight, there will be many such men harbouring a sense of dread. I know the government is taking a different approach, but I do ask them to spare a thought for those men this evening, and to think very deeply about what it can do to support them.”