Benn says ‘no choice' but to repeal NI legacy act as veterans stage protest
The Northern Ireland secretary, speaking at a debate in Westminster Hall, argued that of the 250,000 British military veterans who had served in the country, 'the number being prosecuted for offences has been very, very small'.
Benn said he recognised 'the very real fears that many veterans have' and that the government took 'those concerns very seriously' – but he said Labour had no choice but to repeal and rewrite the legislation because it had been deemed incompatible with human rights law.
Citing research by the Centre for Military Justice, Benn said the law firm 'records that only one soldier has been convicted since the Good Friday agreement' – a case in which a veteran received a suspended sentence for manslaughter.
Benn was responding to a general debate brought after more than 176,000 people signed a petition demanding Labour not make any changes to the law.
Before it began, a couple of hundred veterans staged a noisy protest at the Cenotaph in Whitehall and in Parliament Square with the support of the Conservatives, who passed the legislation in 2023.
Veterans at the protest said they believed a simple repeal of the legacy act would lead to a reopening of investigations and prosecutions against them, in a gradual process that would take several years.
David Holmes, an RAF veteran who did two tours in Northern Ireland, said that 'what's being proposed would be a return to inquests, that would lead to prosecutions, vexatious prosecutions that would be long, drawn-out'.
Holmes, one of the leaders of the protest, said that although 'the chances of getting a prosecution are very slim, the veteran who is under prosecution will be punished for five to seven years' while the investigation took place.
Dennis Hutchings died in 2021, aged 80, before he could be put on trial for attempting to murder John Pat Cunningham, who was shot in the back and killed as he ran from an army patrol in 1974. The prosecution had been begun six years earlier, in 2015.
Sign up to First Edition
Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
Mick Curtis, 76, who served with the Royal Horse Artillery in Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1971, said he believed 'the rules were being changed in retrospect' and that ordinary soldiers who were given rules of engagement that permitted opening fire in certain circumstances were no longer considered to have acted legitimately.
The Legacy Act halted all but the most serious investigations into Troubles-related killings by soldiers and paramilitary groups – a compromise that also meant that inquiries into the deaths of 202 soldiers and 23 veterans were among those halted last year when the law took effect.
Labour said it would repeal the act because it was opposed by many victims' families and Northern Ireland's political parties, as well as having been deemed by a court to be incompatible with human rights legislation. It has not yet decided exactly what to replace it with.
The shadow defence minister, Mark Francois, one of those supporting the protest, said 'we think the government are beginning to hesitate now that the anger of veterans is becoming apparent'. A repeal of the law would open up former soldiers to 're-investigation endlessly', he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
39 minutes ago
- The National
Are arms firms or constituents the priority for our MPs?
The UK Government had announced it would be making the Conservative Party's ban on puberty blockers for trans youth a permanent fixture of Labour's 'changed' Britain and I had hoped to discuss it with my elected representative. I suspected the entire thing would be an exercise in frustration but I was at least curious to know just how much of a waste of time it would be. And in that sense, Glasgow South MP Gordon McKee did not disappoint. McKee represents an area of Scotland with one of the largest queer and trans demographics in the nation. As the MP for that area, I hoped McKee would be willing to engage with the worries my community had with his party. READ MORE: UK Government draining aid budget with 'broken' asylum hotels policy, watchdog warns Beyond an automated response confirming that my email had been received, my first message went unanswered. I followed up a month later. Then again another month after that. And once more in March. But then, a sign from on high! Lo, a leaflet came through my letterbox from the man himself. McKee, it seemed, held regular surgeries. And although there was no actual information on when or where they were going to be held, here was an option to speak to him. So I asked to meet my MP to discuss the matter in person, and a few days later I had my first response. I was offered a chance to speak for 15 minutes with two caseworkers over Teams. OK. It was around this point that I finally received a response to my earlier emails – three months after they were sent. After a little brag about Labour's investment in the NHS, McKee got down to business: the Labour Government, I was informed, has to follow the evidence, including the findings of the infamous Cass Review commissioned by the previous Conservative government. It didn't seem to matter that the Cass Review had not, in fact, recommended banning puberty blockers for trans young people, nor that the report has been ripped to shreds through peer review over unsound methodology and more. After months of waiting, months of watching the situation in the UK deteriorate further and further for trans people, I had been sent a carefully prepared statement delivered en masse to all who had raised concerns about Labour's attacks on the LGBTQ+ community – and it was still wrong. So I asked if McKee would be willing to meet a group of trans constituents to discuss their concerns, giving him a chance to listen to and understand the people in his community who were angry or even afraid at the direction Labour were taking under Keir Starmer's failing right-wing leadership. My request was met with further silence. However, I was finally offered a chance to finally speak to McKee – for 15 minutes, with less than 24 hours' notice for the following weekday. I was also asked for details of the group that wanted to meet with McKee. Before I had a chance to provide anything, the offer was rescinded. READ MORE: Labour council takes no action against councillor who grabbed Gaza protester by neck According to a caseworker, McKee was too busy focusing on issues such as homelessness (even though the primary responsibility for homelessness lies with local councils, not MPs). Instead, he would respond to the issues I had raised in my previous emails. I did not receive a response to my previous emails. Nor the next ones I sent. But after more following up, I was offered a solo surgery date four weeks later. It took five months, but I finally had the chance to speak to my MP. It was a complete waste of time. Face to face, I asked repeatedly if McKee would commit to meeting properly with a group of trans constituents to talk about the current dire situation being inflamed by his party – and the answer was no. I was told that if anyone had an issue, they could reach out to Gordon individually (emails to be sent to and he would be able to help on that basis – though the five months of ignored emails and U-turns to organise a 15-minute discussion would really suggest otherwise. Getting a straight answer to any question I asked proved almost as difficult as getting the meeting in the first place. READ MORE: Why is the BBC not talking about Scottish concerns? I was reminded of this exchange last week when I saw McKee pop up on the Sunday National's list of MPs running a cross-party group looking to 'partner' with defence firms, to give them exclusive access to Westminster MPs and policy makers for as little as £1499. It took nearly six months for my MP to meet me, but now I see my error. If only I had been an arms firm with cash to spare, maybe the process could have been expedited somewhat. In the scheme of things, my experience is not the worst by any measure. But it is a story being told the length of the United Kingdom on a daily basis. We are treated with absolute contempt by the British political class, who will cosy up to arms firms while proscribing people who take action against them as terrorists. Politicians will attack your rights, your welfare and your freedom while thumbing their nose at even the suggestion of accountability. I doubt McKee is any worse than his colleagues, but isn't that just the greatest indictment of the political establishment he represents?
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Labour blames middle-class shoplifters for pushing up prices
Middle-class shoplifters are responsible for pushing up prices on the high street, the policing and crime minister has claimed. Dame Diana Johnson has vowed to punish wealthier thieves as part of her crackdown on retail crime, insisting 'there will be consequences' for shoplifters, regardless of their background. She said: 'It's a crime. If you're middle class, or whichever class you want to determine that you are, it's a crime. That is just not acceptable because we all know that people end up paying higher prices if people are stealing.' Her comments come as Britain's retailers battle a shoplifting epidemic that is costing them billions of pounds each year. In a bid to address the issue, the Government plans to invest £200m into neighbourhood policing, and has said it will make assaulting a shop worker a standalone offence. It has also scrapped previous legislation that made stealing goods worth less than £200 a 'summary-only' low-level offence. It also plans to develop a 'Fusion Cell' programme for sharing intelligence on retail crime and its perpetrators. Incidents of retail crime hit their highest level on record in the year leading up to August 2024, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), growing by more than 50pc to hit more than 2,000 incidents a day. Graham Wynn, a director at the BRC, said: 'The cost of theft has also risen to over £2.2bn a year, pushing up prices for honest shoppers and damaging the customer experience.' Much of the crime wave has been blamed on organised crime gangs who steal high-value goods such as spirits and meat before selling them on for a profit. Middle-class crime However, retail industry bosses have increasingly raised the alarm over shoplifting among the middle classes. Archie Norman, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, first highlighted it as a problem two years ago: 'It's too easy to say it's a cost of living problem. Some of this shoplifting is by gangs. Then you get the middle class. 'With the reduction of service you get in a lot of shops, a lot of people think: 'This didn't scan properly, or it's very difficult to scan these things through, and I shop here all the time. It's not my fault, I'm owed it'.' Last month, John Nussbaum, director of retail at Kingdom Security, said some shoplifters believed they were 'cheating the system' and did not necessarily see themselves as criminals. When asked what her message to shoplifters would be, Dame Diana said: 'It's a crime. You are committing a crime. 'During the disorder last year, I remember in Hull, there were young women coming out of Lush because they'd been into Lush to loot, and they were coming out with boxes of toiletries from Lush, thinking that was perfectly fine. 'There were no consequences. We have to get back to the fact that if you steal, if you commit a crime, there will be consequences.' She also called on landlords not to allow the selling of stolen goods in their venues, amid reports that some pubs were being used by criminals to do so. She said: 'If you're a pub down the road, then selling that is not part of what you should be doing to protect and support your community.'
Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Soaring asylum costs threaten aid budget, watchdog warns Labour
Immigration is never off the news agenda these days, as Brits remain concerned about the influx of people to the country while the cost of living crisis and housing pressures only seem to worsen. Last week Sir Keir Starmer sealed a 'one in, one out' migrant returns deal with France's President Emmanuel Macron which some number-crunching suggested is a little more akin to an, er, 17 in, one out set-up. The Labour lot have other borders-related problems on their plates too, however, as an independent watchdog has warned that the cost of supporting asylum seekers is set to absorb a whooping one-fifth of the gutted aid budget. Crikey! After Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced in last month's spending review that the aid budget would be slashed – from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent by 2027 – the Independent Commission for Aid Impact has today raised concerns about ballooning refugee costs. Under international aid rules, a portion of the costs of an asylum seeker's first year in the UK qualifies as official development assistance and therefore comes out of the aid budget. As such, the watchdog has also warned about soaring costs of housing asylum seekers in the UK – with the price tag rising from £628 million in 2020 to a staggering £4.3bn in 2023. The surging cost of asylum provision leaves a fraction (0.24 per cent) gross national income for overseas development, the lowest amount of cash available for poverty reduction and humanitarian assistance for 50 years. Another Live Aid, anyone..? By the watchdog's figures, the UK spent three times as much aid per refugee compared to other major European countries in 2023. Perhaps, the report suggests, it's got something to do with 32,000 asylum seekers living in expensive, taxpayer-funded hotels. Well, Reeves has more on this, too. In her spending review, the Chancellor promised to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029 – claiming the move would save £1bn. The Home Office will instead look to increase the capacity of sites like the Wethersfield RAF base in Essex. Problem solved? Mr S isn't so sure. Quizzed by a House of Lords Committee last month whether he believed the government would succeed in their intention to stop using hotels, independent chief inspector of borders and immigration David Bolt replied: Frankly, I do not think that it will be achieved… There is simply not sufficient housing stock to be able to deal with the sorts of numbers that are in the system… It is really challenging. Oh dear. It would be putting it mildly to say that the slashing of the UK's aid budget has not gone smoothly. Reeves's announcement prompted the immediate resignation of Anneliese Dodds, the minister who was actually responsible for international aid – and former PM Gordon Brown unleashed a scathing tirade about the move during a recent speech in London. Will this latest watchdog warning persuade the government to better tackle the holes in the asylum system? Watch this space…
