Labour whips accused of ‘tactics’ to delay Northern Ireland Legacy debateThe Northern Ireland Troubles (Criminal Investigations etc) Bill by Tory MP Lincoln Jopp is separate from Government legislation.The proposal was the second of six private members’ bills that were listed for a debate on Friday (Stefan Rousseau/PA)PA ArchiveWill Meakin-Durrant5 minutes ago
Labour whips have been accused of using tactics to block the progress of a Bill designed to put curbs on new investigations into veterans who served in Northern Ireland.
Conservative MP Lincoln Jopp began presenting his Northern Ireland Troubles (Criminal Investigations etc) Bill on Friday.
He said his proposal, which is separate from the Government’s own Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, would write into law that “no further investigations, inquiries, inquests or prosecutions of Northern Ireland veterans” could begin without new “compelling evidence in the view of a Supreme Court judge”.
The proposal was the second of six private members’ bills that were listed for a debate on Friday, a day when MPs must conclude their business by 2.30pm.
Mr Jopp said the House of Commons was “in fervent agreement with itself” on the first Bill, which was written in an effort to give Parliament new tools to scrutinise the Government’s support for infants, parents and carers.
The Spelthorne MP continued: “And that means that I get 15 minutes at the end – and this is a tactic.”
Mr Jopp said veterans who had arrived to watch the debate had been in Parliament “since 9.30 this morning”.
He added: “I feel very sorry for them because they will be as confused as I am as to why the Government so dislikes this Bill.”
The Bill is written so that, if it were passed, ministers would have six months to publish proposals to stop new investigations being opened without “new and compelling” information.
Mr Jopp said he wanted to “draw a line, a fair line, such that the neverending cycle of investigation, inquiries, inquests, prosecutions are used as a punishment tool” against veterans.
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He added that he did four tours of Northern Ireland.
He told the Commons that during his first tour, republican paramilitary organisations had “invented a thing called the coffee jar bomb”, a jar for instant coffee with a length of scaffolding in it, filled with “shipyard confetti, nuts and bolts, some plastic explosives and a plunger switch”.
Mr Jopp continued: “It was designed to kill and maim.
“But it was also designed to put us troops on the horns of a dilemma because if you saw someone with a coffee jar in their hand, and they were looking like they were going to throw it, could you reasonably open fire under the rules of engagement?
“Because it could be a coffee jar.”
He said: “We have put young men and women into the streets of the United Kingdom with a rifle strapped round their neck, with very, very few rights in addition to those that they have as a private citizen.
“And we have sent them on patrol in order to try to keep the peace – and with bad people on sides trying to do bad things to them.”
The debate ended at 2.30pm, without time for a Government minister to respond.
It will be listed to resume on September 11 but the debate is unlikely to progress without support from the Government.
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