Northern Ireland Troubles Bill

Angus MacDonald Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Bayo Alaba (Southend East and Rochford) (Ind)]

I am pleased to be able to participate in today’s debate. I did not serve in Northern Ireland, but I did spend time as a Parachute Regiment reservist—an experience that laid the foundations of my path to becoming the Member of Parliament for Southend East and Rochford. It afforded me opportunities I would never have otherwise experienced, and I know the same is true for countless others.

Paratroopers served alongside members of our armed forces and the Northern Irish security forces throughout Operation Banner, often in the most dangerous situations. They were asked to do an immensely difficult job in the hope of delivering lasting peace. Many of those soldiers, now in their 70s and 80s, have spent decades fearing a knock at their door. The unjust reality is that most who are fearful of historical prosecutions are largely working-class men who served in their late teens or 20s.

I want to speak to the point made by the hon. Member for Foyle (Colum Eastwood) about justice for victims and civilians, which I fully understand. What I would say is those young service personnel are victims, too. They saw and experienced things that they cannot unsee. They were deployed to Northern Ireland on the instructions of the British Government and fulfilled their duties as commanded by their chain of command. That is why I feel so passionately about the Bill and the protections it must offer.

For more than a quarter of a century, the job of properly addressing the legacy of the troubles has been kicked down the road by successive Governments. This legislation is an attempt to end that unwillingness and to deliver justice to all those affected. What it is not is an attempt to unfairly target British soldiers with legal proceedings or to reopen wounds that are barely healed. The truth is that if this legislation is not passed, those who served in Operation Banner would be completely exposed to spurious prosecution and would lack the immunity that they were falsely promised.

This legislation will offer veterans new protections, including strict guidelines on what can be considered new and compelling evidence, measures to adequately recognise the context in which soldiers were operating, and the explicit rejection of equivalence between service personnel and insurgents. That is why, despite my concerns about certain details of the Bill, I have worked extensively with the veteran community, most notably the Parachute Regimental Association, throughout this process. I commend it for the good-faith nature in which it has engaged.

This Bill is not perfect, but it is a marked improvement on the flawed legislation passed in 2023. The consequences of not getting this Bill right are very real, and while the failure of the process would belong to us all, its impact will be felt hardest by those we claim to support. If we are unable to talk, listen and make good-faith compromises, we risk repeating the mistakes that this legislation seeks to correct. No one here wants to see our children and our grandchildren patrolling the streets of Belfast again. We have a duty to prevent that cycle of violence from reigniting. I want this Bill to go even further in protecting our veterans, and I will keep working with the veteran community and the Government to make that happen. We do need justice, we need closure, and families need answers, but, most of all, we need long-lasting peace.

[Mr Angus MacDonald (Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire) (LD)]

I would like to speak to amendment 130 and clause 36. My son, myself, my father, my grandfather and my great-grandfather—and pretty well all my ancestors forever—have served in the Army. I was a subaltern in Northern Ireland at the peak of the troubles in 1984, and my regiment, the Queen’s Own Highlanders, saw the death of the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel David Blair, and 17 more soldiers who were killed in the two explosives in Warrenpoint in 1979. The pain of those deaths was still very live among many of the regiment who were serving five years later when I was serving, but despite the pain, I do not recollect a single person who felt any desire to take revenge. The professionalism of the British soldier could be depended on.

I have a son who has just left the Army after several years as a trooper. I told him that I was coming to this debate, and he told me an anecdote. He said, “Well, let me tell you a story. There are four guys, all armed, and they are clearing a building in the middle east. They go upstairs, and as they go along the corridor, out of the back of the building comes a man, and in front of him is a female. Over her shoulder he is firing AK-47 bullets, and spraying them. They shoot that man and that woman—they kill them, but they had no option. It happened on the spur of the moment, and they could not really decide how to get out of it, or they would all have been dead.”

Is there any chance that those British soldiers could be charged with murder? If there is, I would strongly recommend the young I meet not to join the Army. British soldiers in my day were always able to depend on the support of the British public, the Government and the judiciary. In my time in Northern Ireland, we knew that we had our backs covered, and that we had to abide by the law. What we did not have then was sharp-suited lawyers looking for any opportunity to pursue us in court, possibly for decades. The recruitment of soldiers is extremely poor at the moment, and unless the concerns of those serving, and of veterans, are put to rest, we will not be able to rebuild our fighting force to the strength we need.

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

Almost three decades on from the Good Friday agreement, the challenge of legacy remains unsolved. That is so important to remember when agreeing on the amendments tonight and moving forward with the Bill tomorrow. It is an honour to be part of a process that will be so historic for the future of Northern Ireland. I praise the work of my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds South (Hilary Benn), my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral West (Matthew Patrick), the Minister, the Secretary of State and the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee for all their work on the Bill and for bringing us to this place. I also thank the victims groups and individual victims, many of whom have not spoken out in this process, but of whom we are thinking.

I praise the veterans—my grandfather is from Northern Ireland and served in the British Army—as well as Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, who are bringing forward legislation all the time to create a peace for Northern Ireland, and the community leaders who are building that peace every day. I say to people across Northern Ireland that we hope that passing this Bill and agreeing to the Government amendments, which I support, will bring us closer to the permanent peace, justice and reconciliation that everyone in Northern Ireland, and across the UK, can build on.

As we proceed this Committee stage, every clause and amendment should be judged by one simple test: will it help victims and bereaved families to finally get the answers that they have waited decades to receive? They have woken up waiting for those answers every single morning, and although they do not want to, they are passing that wait on to future generations—to their own children—and looking ahead to it being passed on and on with despair. We want to draw a line, and the Bill should enable peace and reconciliation to set everyone in Northern Ireland free from the dark past. Earlier this afternoon, members of the Victims and Survivors Forum spoke to MPs about parents, siblings and grandparents killed during the troubles. One victim said:

“It has now been 53 years since my father was murdered. I have moved on from justice. I just want the truth.”

That window of truth, and the potential for getting that truth, is closing.

More than 3,500 people lost their lives during the troubles, and nearly a third of those deaths remain unsolved. Behind every case is a family still living with those unanswered questions. The greatest risk before us is delay, so for those Members who are considering voting no to the Government amendments and no to the Bill, that is what is before us. Every year that passes makes establishing the truth harder. Witnesses pass away, memories fade and evidence is lost. Doing nothing means accepting that some families may never learn what happened to their loved ones, instead of accepting this carefully balanced Bill. The former Secretary of State and the Secretary of State have stopped and listened so carefully to victims, and have brought forward the Bill and the amendments.

As has been said, the previous legacy Act failed to command confidence across Northern Ireland. It closed down routes that families had pursued for years and left many feeling further away from truth and accountability. The Bill takes a different approach. The reformed legacy commission will have stronger investigative and disclosure powers, and a clear focus on providing families with as much information as possible, as well as learning from the Kenova inquiry and that victim-led process—a way of taking action that means asking victims at every stage what they want to know. Not every case will lead to a prosecution. Many are now 40 or 50 years old. However, where prosecutions are possible—it has been proven already that they are—families should have the fullest possible account of what happened.

I welcome Government amendment 192, which ensures that documentary evidence is considered before witnesses are contacted, and requires compelling new evidence before individuals are approached. I welcome new clauses 33 and 34, and amendments 148 and 149, which establish a statutory victims and survivors advisory group. This is so important—I see that it has come from many conversations with WAVE, which has been mentioned before, as well as other victims groups. Those groups have asked for a statutory place where victims’ voices will be heard. If the process is to command confidence, victims’ voices must be at its heart, as they will be with the new advisory group. I also welcome new clause 35, which states that the legacy commission must carry out its duties

“in a way that avoids any unnecessary cost”,

because too often, lawyers are the only winners in this process. However, can the Secretary of State explain how unnecessary costs in the process will be checked and reported to the House?

The provisions relating to inquests are equally important. Families who have fought for years for answers deserve a process that is effective, independent and focused on delivering outcomes. Alongside that victim-centred approach, the Bill contains important protections for veterans. The overwhelming majority of those who served during Operation Banner—we have gratitude for them—did so with courage, professionalism and distinction. I welcome the statutory duty to avoid the unnecessary duplication of previous investigations—the rinse and repeat clause—as well as new clause 32, which recognises the operational circumstances in which veterans served. These amendments provide real clarity for some things that were in the Bill already but were needed to provide assurance.

I welcome amendment 240 and new clauses 45 and 46, which protect veterans from inappropriate cold-calling by requiring contact to be made through the Ministry of Defence. The provisions protecting older witnesses are also sensible and proportionate, and a result of many conversations with veterans groups. Supporting victims and protecting veterans are not competing objectives—there needs to be a careful balance, and a credible legacy framework must do both. It was never going to be easy, but the Bill achieves that balance.

The Secretary of State has reiterated in this debate that there can be no moral equivalence between those who served lawfully in our armed forces and police service, and those who carried out acts of terrorism. The IRA, the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Ulster Defence Association and the Irish National Liberation Army were responsible for the overwhelming majority of deaths during the troubles. Nobody involved in such acts should receive immunity from accountability. I therefore welcome the removal of the previous Act’s immunity provisions and the restoration of routes to accountability under the rule of law.

I also welcome the greater consistency and oversight sought through new clauses 49 and 50. However, on new clause 50, which would require the Attorney General’s consent for serious troubles-related prosecutions, victims and survivors have raised with me concerns about independence and how the safeguard will be perceived. Will the Secretary of State reassure the House that the new clause will not create the impression that there is a special hurdle for Crown-related cases, and that prosecutorial—that is a hard word; I must practise it more—decisions will continue to be taken independently, and will be applied equally to all those under investigation? This is about being equal under the law.