Coronor’s SAS Operation Ruling Sparks Debate Over Troubles Legacy

After a controversial coroner's ruling challenges the legal accountability of British soldiers serving in NI, MPs demand laws to protect soldiers now and in the future from legal persecution.

MPs are calling for greater protections for soldiers who served in Northern Ireland from lawfare, following decades of persecution.

The implications affect not only soldiers who served in the past but also those called upon to engage in peackeeping ventures in the future.

“The ruling on the Clonoe incident risks further persecution of British soldiers who bravely served during the Troubles,” said Sir David. “The Government must ensure that those who serve our country today are protected from such partisan distortions of justice.”

The judgment from the Northern Ireland coroner into the Clonoe incident now exposes a number of soldiers to prosecution.

“The MoD is quite properly seeking judicial review of this inquiry, but even if they win, we must put in place statutory protections for our soldiers now and in the future from this persecution,” said Sir David.

“These are men who served their country with honour, heroism and skill, sometimes in the face of the most incredible danger.

“They are now no doubt hoping for a well-earned peaceful retirement, not a future of endless stress and psychological torture.”

“If the Government leave them open to persecuton, it will frankly be shameful and serve only to further the IRA’s attempt to rewrite the history of Northern Ireland.”

SAS soldiers who have written to MPS state that they support human rights.

“They do more than that, they are the ones who guarantee them for the rest of us,” said Sir David. “Our soldiers deserve better.”

The Clonoe ruling, he said, is a “historical revisionism that seeks to punish those who served our country under the most difficult and dangerous circumstances”.

The law must be applied fairly, he says, politics should not undermine the legacy of those who fought to protect freedoms.

That is not to say that soldiers should be given free rein to act illegally.

But, he added, justice must be fair and practical.

“The findings of the Northern Ireland Coroner on the Clonoe incident were neither,” he said.

Watch the full debate here: https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Search?Keywords=&Member=Rt+Hon+Sir+David+Davis+MP&MemberId=373&House=&Business=&Start=02%2F04%2F2025&End=02%2F04%2F2025