DUP MP Jim Shannon writes to Daily Mirror asking for apology and retraction of 'scornfully insulting' comments made about RUC

The editorial on Tuesday, published following the report condemning the Metropolitan Police for the standards of its behaviour and internal culture, began: “The Metropolitan Police, damned as racist, homophobic and misogynistic, is drinking in the last chance saloon.

“Either the tarnished force is radically and permanently reformed or it must be replaced.

“There is precedent for this, when the Police Service of Northern Ireland succeeded the discredited Royal Ulster Constabulary.”

There is no further mention of the RUC in the editorial, but those three lines were enough to cause Strangford MP Jim Shannon to thrash out a furious letter to the paper’s editor Alison Philips demanding an apology and a retraction.

He said he did not disagree that the findings of the report into the Met are “scandalous and leave no doubt that urgent reforms are required”, but took exception at the RUC being brought into the discourse.

In his letter to the editor he said: “I write to you because I condemn in the strongest terms possible your erroneous and scornfully insulting description of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) as being a ‘discredited’ force who set a ‘precedent’ for ‘reform’ and ‘replacement’ of policing structures.

"The RUC was never disbanded but subject to a process of transformation of name, badge and uniform whilst maintaining the same level of commitment to duty and rule of law carried out in Northern Ireland courageously since 1922.

"Your characterisation of the RUC is contemptuous of a fine and gallant body of men and women, 300 of whom were victims of terrorism, and dismissive of their unbending duty in protecting the people of Northern Ireland.”

He said that it was regretful that the RUC along with the Unionist tradition “has to be continually defended against tactless, incorrect and dangerous narratives delivered under the full pressure of malicious and divisive propaganda”.

Mr Shannon continued: “It was within a unique environment and unique circumstances that the men and women of the RUC were required to operate in addition to their regular duties. In this continuing climate of rhetoric and revisionism I have, and will, throughout my political life and beyond, challenge and condemn the distorters and twisters of the truth who attack and misrepresent the lost and surviving members of the RUC, and in even more forceful terms, I level my criticism at this community. Misrepresented, yes – discredited or disgraced … never.

I unequivocally state that the Government, and above all the people of Northern Ireland, have every reason to be proud of the proven exemplary professional standards, and above all the devotion to duty, of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

He concluded by asking for an apology and that a retraction of the statement be made on the same page of the paper where “this dangerous, disparaging and dishonest claim was made”.

The Daily Mirror has been contacted about Mr Shannon’s complaint and asked if it would be publishing an apology and retraction.