TWO of the nation’s most senior ex-generals have issued a call to arms to stop Labour betraying our veterans.
General Sir Peter Wall and General Sir Nick Parker demanded the government put safeguards in law to end decades-long legal witch hunts.
General Sir Peter Wall demanded the government put safeguards in law to end decades long legal witch hunts Credit: Alamy
General Sir Nick Parker said: ‘We must let every MP know how important it is to support those who serve their country’
It comes after Sir Keir Starmer rowed back legal protections designed to shield troops from so-called “lawfare,” where enemies of the state – including IRA sympathisers – are free to wage war in the courts.
Scores of elderly veterans have been dragged through investigations decades after they were cleared of wrongdoing on operations in Northern Ireland.
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Generals Parker and Wall said old cases must only come to court where there is “genuinely new and compelling evidence”.
They have urged Britain’s army of veterans to bombard their MPs with demands to change the Troubles Bill which is currently going through parliament.
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Gen Wall, a former Chief of the General Staff, said changes to the bill would “prevent soldiers being betrayed”.
He said: “To prevent soldiers being betrayed now and in the future, we have to change the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill.”
In a joint statement with Gen Parker, he said: “Those who serve under lawful authority do so on one understanding: If they act lawfully, the State will stand behind them.”
It comes after Labour’s ex-Veterans Minister Al Carns warned the Troubles Bill was “unfit for purpose”.
Carns quit last month and accused Keir Starmer of “failing the very veterans” his government claimed to protect.
Carns, an ex-Special Forces commando, said: “I have worked to fix the Bill from the inside, but it remains unfit for purpose.
“It risks failing the very veterans it claims to protect.”
He added: “We ask soldiers to fight for this country. In return, we owe them the kit to do the job and the loyalty to stand by them when it’s done. We are failing on both.”
Generals Parker and Wall shared a letter for veterans to send to their MPs on a dedicated website shouldertoshoulder.uk.
They wrote: “This is not about immunity. Those who break the law should always be held to account.”
They added: “The issue is whether veterans who acted lawfully, under government authority and in accordance with the rules of engagement, should continue to face repeated investigations and legal proceedings decades later, even where there is no genuinely new and compelling evidence.”
General Parker, whose soldier son Harry lost both his legs to a Taliban bomb in Afghanistan, added: “We must let every MP know how important it is to support those who serve their country.
“Please help us by emailing your constituency MP and encourage all those who feel like us to do so as well.”
It comes after the SAS Regimental Association said veterans had been “hounded for doing their duty”.
In a joint statement with the SBS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment associations, they also claimed Labour’s Troubles Bill was “not fit for purpose.”
The normally secretive associations said: “The Special Forces associations have never sought immunity from wrongdoing but are adamant that the mistreatment of veterans must end.”
