Defence ministers slammed for ignoring ‘unacceptable’ Northern Ireland ‘witch hunt’ into killings during The Troubles
DEFENCE ministers were slammed by MPs for refusing to tackle the “wholly unacceptable” Northern Ireland vets’ witch hunt.
Conservatives united with Ulster unionists to demand Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon intervene to halt the new police probe.
But during heated Commons exchanges, Sir Michael and his frontbench team insisted they were powerless to intervene in an ongoing investigation.
As The Sun revealed last week, all 302 killings by soldiers during 30 years of the Troubles are being investigated afresh – casting as many as 1,000 vets, now in their 60s and 70s, as potential murderers.
Former defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth insisted Sir Michael and his frontbench team will be held “personally accountable” for what happens to the vets.
The senior Tory backbencher added: “It really is wholly unacceptable that nearly half a century men who have served their country to the best of their ability should still face possible prosecution.
“It is not good enough to say this is a matter for Police Service of Northern Ireland.”
Also during Defence Questions yesterday, DUP MP Ian Paisley Jnr asked why ministers weren’t “disgusted” at the “industrial scale abuse of legal process”.
Mr Paisley added: “It has impugned the reputation of every single soldier that has served in Ulster in the last 40 years”.
Armed Forces Minister Mike Penning himself served a tour of duty in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s, as a young soldier in the Grenadier Guards.
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But Mr Penning stuck to the Northern Ireland Office’s strict line yesterday to insist: “We must make sure that if the police decide to investigate something, they will do so”.
In a failed bid to defuse the mounting anger, Mr Penning also heaped praise on the 250,000 Ulster vets, saying: “The vast majority of servicemen and women served with distinction in Northern Ireland.
“We will make sure as we bring forward proposals that we protect those that have served as much as possible.”
Former Tory foreign office minister Sir Henry Bellingham will today heap more pressure on Downing Street to step in and halt the new investigation, that police have warned will take years.
Mr Bellingham has called a debate in Westminster Hall to discuss the legacy probes.
The Tory grandee told The Sun last night: “What is going in is absolutely appalling and breaches the military covenant.
“No other country in this world would treat their veterans in this way.
“You simply cannot have parity between terrorists and soldiers doing their best to abide by the law.”