Conservative MP and former Colonel, James Sunderland, has hit out at the Irish government’s legal challenge to a British law which gives immunity to hundreds of soldiers involved in The Troubles.
Speaking to GB News he said:
“The Conservative Party stood in 2019 on a manifesto, which promised many things and resolving the endless cycle of vexatious claims against veterans who'd served in Northern Ireland was one of those manifesto promises.
“And I'm pleased to say that the British government under a Conservative Prime Minister has delivered that manifesto promise, put this bill through Parliament, and it's now an act of law.
“It’s a very strange announcement today. I mean, I think that there's a sense of Hotel California, on this from the Irish government. You can check out anytime you'd like from the EU, but you can never leave.
“And I hazard a guess that there is some sort of scare mongering here. It may be electioneering – there’s an election coming up. But the bottom line is this particular act that's now in law offers equality to all parties, all stakeholders.
“It's not favouring the IRA. It's not favouring British veterans. It's not favouring loyalist communities either. What it's doing is actually drawing a line in the sand in law, which means that we all should be able to move forward now from The Troubles.
“We've got many, many examples of veterans over the years being hounded by the courts in Northern Ireland, brought back to court rooms living in fear, waiting for the next knock at the door.
“The promise was made to stop the cycle of vexatious claims against veterans that's now been delivered. That's a good thing. Let's move on.
“But what's clear for me is that actually there's an element of hypocrisy here because the Irish government's own record in this since 1998 is pretty woeful.
“Indeed, the Secretary of State asked the Irish government today, how many prosecutions they've successfully brought since the Good Friday Agreement? I think the answer is very few.
“We’ve seen this time and time again. We've seen this with a cycle of vexatious complaints. We're seeing it with the Rwanda bill at the moment. We are seeing the difficulties of having left the European Union.
“What's interesting, of course, is that the Irish government's has criticized the British government, quote, ‘unilaterally passing legislation.’
“Well,the UK is a sovereign country. We've left the European Union. One of the beauties of Brexit is that we can now pass our own laws that determine our own future. And that’s something that clearly the Irish government doesn't like.
“But the beauty of Brexit is that we've now got the ability to tackle things that we couldn't before whilst a member of the European Union.
“I think it is important that communities in Northern Ireland try and move on. We've seen very few prosecutions over the years. The Good Friday Agreement is very successful. And quite clearly, cases aren't being brought to court because of the lack of evidence and what we've now got is a framework through this thing called the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery whereby we can now get the information that we seek.”
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