Northern Ireland Secretary faces backlash for saying amnesty for Troubles soldiers was a ‘bad idea’
Karen Bradley said pardoning the troops would also mean an amnesty for the IRA bombers who killed 11 people in Enniskillen in 1987
TOP TORY Karen Bradley risks a backlash after saying an amnesty for Northern Ireland veterans is a “bad idea”.
The Northern Ireland Secretary said a troop pardon would mean an equivalent amnesty for the IRA’s notorious Enniskillen bombers.
It came as she admitted never having realised voters in the province always vote along sectarian lines.
The comments will outrage Tory MPs furious with the Government for failing to protect veterans being hounded for deaths during the Troubles.
Tory backbencher Richard Benyon stormed: “Nothing is being done to protect the vets. And everything is being done to schmooze Sinn Fein.”
The MP has tabled a private bill to protect troops from prosecution ten years after combat.
But speaking to House magazine, Ms Bradley insisted an amnesty must apply to all sides.
She added: “The very idea that somebody coming forward and for example saying, ‘Actually I did carry out the Enniskillen bombing’ — and that would somehow resolve the situation is just, it’s simply preposterous.”
She also said before taking up her post she did not understand “when elections are fought people who are nationalists don’t vote for unionist parties and vice versa”.
The Enniskillen bombing in 1987 killed 11 and injured 68 people.
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