Northern Ireland Troubles Bill only serves the IRA up what they want - the British state in the dock, former Armed Forces minister warns

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 08:05 EDT, 27 August 2026 | Updated: 08:50 EDT, 27 August 2026 Labour’s Bill to protect British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland ‘only serves the IRA’, according to a former Armed Forces Minister.Al Carns, who quit Sir Keir Starmer’s government earlier this year, has launched a devastating critique of his party’s treatment of veterans.Writing in The Spectator, the former Special Forces officer predicted Republicans will exploit the Troubles Bill to persecute troops and demand compensation.Mr Carns left the Cabinet hours after former Defence Secretary John Healey over Labour’s failure to meet spending targets for the Armed Forces and over veterans.He told the magazine that the IRA and Sinn Fein want ‘the British state in the dock’ – and that, as drafted, the Bill ‘hands them what they want’.Mr Carns demanded changes to the Bill so it offers greater protection for soldiers involved in controversial incidents decades ago.While veterans have welcomed Mr Carns’s recent stance on the Troubles Bill, privately some former senior officers are sceptical considering the length of time he supported the prospective legislation, as Veterans Minister and later Armed Forces Minister.Labour’s treatment of veterans remains a hugely controversial issue, with the Special Air Service Regiment Association (SASRA) threatening legal action unless its members’ interests are recognised. Former Armed Forces minister Al Carns said Labour’s Bill to protect British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland ‘only serves the IRA’ SASRA wrote to the government earlier this year warning it will take legal steps unless the Troubles Bill is redrafted.Mr Carns said that contrary to the Good Friday Agreement – which demanded that all parties to the conflict in Northern Ireland made sacrifices to achieve peace – the Troubles Bill asks too much of soldiers and too little of the terrorists.He said: ‘Everyone accepted an imperfect settlement and gave something up in exchange for something back.’But the Bill ‘breaks that symmetry’ and paves the way for millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being spent on additional inquests and court battles.’Mr Carns insisted that veterans were not asking for immunity from prosecutions relating to their service in Northern Ireland, only that government legislation should not permit the terrorists to rewrite history by claiming they were the victims of rather than the perpetrators of violence.The Troubles Bill has been introduced by Labour to replace the previous Conservative government’s Legacy Act 2023 which offered conditional immunity for individuals involved in Troubles-related offences.Labour’s alternative legislation removes those protections and establishes an investigative body to explore whether any additional evidence warrants the reopening of decades-old cases.The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Retrieval would be set up jointly with the government of the Republic of Ireland.The Troubles Bill has passed its first and second readings in the House of Commons and is due to reach Committee stage this autumn.But since it was last before the House, Sir Chris Bryant has replaced Hilary Benn as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – while Louise Sandher-Jones replaced Mr Carns as Armed Forces Minister.Former SAS Commanding Officer Richard Williams told the Mail: ‘In years to come, I am convinced the country will look upon veterans hounded into very old age by the government’s unchecked and despicable lawfare much as it now regards shell-shocked soldiers executed by firing squad during World War One: loyal servants sacrificed by political expediency and moral blindness.’According to the Northern Ireland Office the prospective legislation will ‘put in place a fair and transparent system that enables families of victims, including those who never came home from service, to seek answers’.The government also claims the Troubles Bill offers veterans six protections and safeguards that were not previously in place, including not having to attend legal hearings in Northern Ireland.The Bill will also establish a reformed Legacy Commission and pave the way for new information sharing arrangements with the Irish authorities, delivering on the ‘sprit and promise of the Good Friday Agreement’, according to the government.