The armed forces minister will miss a pivotal vote on the government’s Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, which special forces veterans have warned risks prolonging the “disgraceful persecution” of former soldiers.
Al Carns, a decorated ex-officer in the Royal Marines and serving reservist, will be travelling overseas on Monday when MPs vote on a proposal to carry the legislation into the next parliamentary session.
Carns is believed to be visiting troops engaged in defensive missions against Iran in the Gulf. It means the government’s most senior veteran will be absent from the debate on a signature piece of legislation, which has soured relations between Sir Keir Starmer and the veterans’ community.
The Birmingham Selly Oak MP, who was a colonel in the Special Boat Service and completed a tour of Northern Ireland in the 2000s, is expected to stand for leader in the event Starmer is challenged or steps down after the local elections.
However, he was on resignation watch for much of last year over the government’s plan to replace the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act, which offered conditional immunity for conduct during the Troubles, with a bill that critics say reopens the door to the prosecution of veterans by re-examining decades-old events.
Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretary, has announced measures which he said protected veterans, including anonymity, a guarantee no one will be compelled to give evidence in the province and an end to “cold calling” by detectives.
He has also unveiled “protection in old age” — many affected veterans are in their seventies — and measures to stop unnecessary testimony on well-established historical context.
Hillary Benn, the Northern Ireland secretaryAlamy
Yet the bill is still the subject of fierce criticism, and veterans say Benn’s measures do nothing to halt vexatious prosecutions and only help those already embroiled in proceedings. They want a stop to cases being reinvestigated unless there is credible, independently verified new evidence. Last week Benn was forced to announce he would include “additional protections and reassurances for veterans” in the bill.
Carns, 46, has been intimately involved in the drafting of the resulting amendments, which have not yet been published. Many veterans believe he remains ambivalent about the overall plans and has stopped short of endorsing them. He has previously described protecting veterans as his “red line”.
Monday’s vote will allow the government to bring the legislation back to the Commons as soon as possible in the parliamentary session that starts next month, once the King’s Speech has been debated. The measure, though procedural, is essential for the bill’s survival.
The bullet-riddled and burnt-out car in which three IRA men were shot dead by the SAS in Coagh in 1991Pacemaker
Before the vote, SAS veterans urged ministers to drop the plan outright, saying the government should “recognise how flawed” the plans are and avoid further “lawfare [that] risks seriously undermining our national security”. Their regimental association has threatened a legal challenge if it goes ahead, saying the plans risk more cases like that of Soldier B. The veteran, now in his sixties, has effectively had his name cleared three times after four years of court hearings concerning the use of lethal force against an unarmed IRA driver in Coagh, Co Tyrone, in June 1991.
The SAS Regimental Association said of the new amendments: “No draft text has been shared with us as promised.”
Lord Hermer, the attorney-general, has been referred to the Bar Standards Council by Nick Timothy, the shadow justice secretary.
During his career as a barrister, Timothy alleged, Hermer persisted with claims of murder and torture against British soldiers long after it was clear they were not viable.
Lord HermerThomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy
An opposition source said: “Labour MPs have a choice on Monday: either they walk through the voting lobbies for a scandal-ridden PM and attorney-general who literally made a living off prosecuting our veterans, or they do the right thing, back our armed forces and kill this bill.”
They added: “With a Labour leadership election imminent, do John Healey [the defence secretary] and Al Carns really want to vote against our veterans and against our national security on Monday?”
The Legacy Commission, which is responsible for providing information about the Troubles to victims, survivors and their families, is the body tasked with re-examining deaths and has more than a hundred live cases.
Benn faces a tightrope in winning widespread approval for the plans. John Finucane, the Sinn Fein MP for North Belfast, said last week that the latest measure set the government on a “dangerous path” to creating “veterans’ legislation”, even as veterans said it did not go nearly far enough.