John Healey’s letter resigning as Defence Secretary set out a damning indictment of the Government’s inability and unwillingness “to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.”
After the Supreme Court’s judgment, the Government cannot credibly maintain that it was the ECHR which forced its hand
Al Carns’s resignation as Armed Forces Minister, only a few hours later, powerfully reinforced this point and opened up a second political front, robustly attacking the Government’s approach to Northern Ireland legacy cases. The attack was fully warranted and a sharp change in approach to legacy cases needs to be introduced now.
The Government came into office committed to repealing the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 – which brought an end to civil claims and inquests arising out of the Troubles and offered conditional immunity to those who engaged with a new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery. The Act was unloved in Northern Ireland, but it at least constituted a serious attempt to bring to an end an unhappy and interminable legal process, reopening events of half a century earlier with little prospect of securing justice.
