Victims claim Lord Peter Hain is now opposing Tory Troubles amnesty similar to Labour version he supported in 2005

A major Troubles victims group is claiming Lord Peter Hain has performed an apparent u-turn - in slamming a Tory Troubles amnesty similar to a Labour version he campaigned for as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Lord Hain says the amnesty he supported in 2005 was much more stringent than that proposed now by the Tory government.Lord Hain says the amnesty he supported in 2005 was much more stringent than that proposed now by the Tory government.
Lord Hain says the amnesty he supported in 2005 was much more stringent than that proposed now by the Tory government.

However Lord Hain insisted that the amnesty he tried to push through parliament in 2005/2006 was much more rigorous than the one now being pushed by the Tory government.

Kenny Donaldson, spokesman for Innocent Victims United, was speaking after Lord Peter Hain issued a statement on Monday, describing the current Government’s proposed statute of limitations, or amnesty, as “legally dubious, constitutionally dangerous and morally corrupt”.

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The current government’s plan to end all investigations, inquests and civil actions has been denounced by all of Northern Ireland’s political parties.

However Kenny Donaldson, spokesman for Innocent Victims United, stated that when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Lord Hain and his party leader Tony Blair had effectively done the same thing.

In 2006 Labour’s Northern Ireland (offences) bill was widely attacked after its second reading in the Commons and faced the prospect of being blocked in the Lords. Lord Hain later admitted that he had not brought forward the bill “with a spring in my step, because I knew how hard it was for those thousands of victims who had lost so much”.

Mr Donaldson said last night: “Had Lord Hain made account of the unjustified policies he was party to in the past and that he was now in a place of reflection over those misjudgments then he would have credibility to speak out on these issues.”

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But defending his support for an amnesty in 2005/6, Lord Hain told the News Letter there were major differences between what he advocated in 2006 and what the Tories are now proposing.

“There were the issues with the Offences Bill of 2005, as I acknowledged at the time, but those who would have taken advantage of it would have had to go through a judicial process, would end up with a criminal record, would have to give fingerprints and dna to the PSNI and would be subject to a license that could be revoked,” he said.

“The current proposals will give a general amnesty to people who have carried out horrendous atrocities: no judicial process, no criminal record, no fingerprints, no dna and no reference to a license.

These proposals will, in effect, say to people who carried out appalling atrocities: ‘What you did no longer matters to the state’. That can’t be right.”