Victims’ pension delays: Brandon Lewis and NIO ‘should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves’

Lord Peter Hain, who served as secretary of state under Tony Blair’s Labour government in the mid 2000s, spoke out against the “savage denial of rights” due to the delays in putting a pension scheme for Troubles victims into place.

The pension scheme had been due to open on May 29 after legislation was passed by Westminster, but it has yet to be put into action.

The UK government and the DUP has blamed Sinn Fein, but Sinn Fein has in turn blamed the UK government.

There were also delays due to a stand-off between Stormont and Westminster over who would pay for the scheme.

Lord Hain, speaking in the House of Lords today, described the delays as a “disgraceful display of political intransigence within the Executive Office” at Stormont, and urged the UK government to “explain what it is doing to address this gratuitous insult to victims and survivors who have suffered so much already through no fault of their own”.

He also raised a case taken by a victim of an IRA bombing from south Belfast.

“Jennifer McNern was only 21-years-old when her legs were blown off in a no-warning IRA bombing in 1972,” Lord Hain said.

“My Lords I have met Jennifer and I can tell you that she is a courageous and determined woman.

“She had no option but to go to the High Court to seek legal redress from the Executive Office which has so blatantly defied the law.

“And how did the UK government respond to Jennifer’s attempt to have the very same law that was passed in the government’s name upheld and implemented?

“They instructed a Queen’s Council to argue before a High Court judge that Jennifer’s judicial review against the Executive Office be set aside to allow another arguably weaker judicial review to proceed in its place.

“My Lords that was and is disgusting behaviour by the secretary of state. As a former holder of that office my natural stance is to support successors.

“But I say to Brandon Lewis and his Northern Ireland Office officials: you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves – the lot of you.

“Jennifer’s case will proceed though it cannot be heard until August, a full six months since the structures to administer the scheme should have been in place.”

He continued: “We can and must demand that the government explain what it is doing to address this gratuitous insult to victims and survivors who have suffered so much already through no fault of their own. I will continue to hound this government until the Victims’ Payments Scheme is in place.”