Theresa May slams lawyers for pursuing British war heroes for alleged war crimes in Iraq
PM hits out at false allegations as one service woman is awarded £5k after being restrained during a wrongful arrest
THERESA May has slammed “tank chaser” lawyers pursuing troops for alleged war crimes in Iraq amid growing fury over the treatment of our war heroes.
The Prime Minister warned against “vexatious allegations” in the row over the treatment of service men and women.
The PM said that while allegations of injustice should be probed she was concerned that the lawyers were still chasing down outrageous actions against former troops.
It emerged on Monday that a highly commended former officer personally praised by Tony Blair, had won compensation after been wrongly arrested.
Rachel Webster, 48, received £5,000 after her breasts were exposed when she was restrained during a dawn raid by officers from the Iraq Historic Allegations Team.
Separately three further servicemen face prosecution over the death of an Iraqi teenager 13 years ago in a move branded a "betrayal" of veterans.
Speaking in New York, Mrs May: "We should all be proud of our armed forces.
"We have an armed forces who are willing to put themselves on the line for our safety and do things that most of us wouldn’t want to contemplate in terms of our own safety - they put themselves on the line.
"What is important is if there are proper allegations of criminal activity then those need to be investigated.
"But what we do need to make sure, is that there isn’t an industry of vexatious allegations coming forward."
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She said she was confident after measures taken by her predecessor David Cameron the IHAT should be focussing on the right cases - and reporting within the timescale.
But the blast will pile yet more pressure onto the disgraced IHAT team.
Tory backbencher Johnny Mercer earlier this week branded the treatment of our heroes a "disgrace".
He stormed: "What we essentially do is ask these people to go on operations that are badly planned, badly funded, badly resourced and thought through.
"Then they come home and we subject them to multiple investigations.
"It's like something from a horror novel."
At the weekend it emerged David Cameron wanted to shut down criminal investigations into the alleged abuse by British troops but was overruled by Government lawyers.
