A FIRM promise to end witch hunt prosecutions of ageing Northern Ireland veterans will be issued in today’s Queen’s Speech.
Boris Johnson will vow to change the law to end a series of vexatious claims made against former Army soldiers on active service during the province’s Troubles.
He will amend the Human Rights Act so it no longer applies to deaths during the conflict, that raged for 30 years until 1997.
The long-called for move will deliver on an election manifesto promise, as well as the PM’s own personal pledge during the Tory leadership campaign in the summer.
But to campaigners’ fury, it was omitted from when the monarch last came to Parliament to list the government’s legislative plans for the next year, on October 14.
Ministers will also make a second legal commitment today, to honour troops and their relatives’ sacrifice by making the Armed Forces Covenant legally binding.
The Tories initially promised to turn the code – that spells out the debt of responsibility the nation owes its services personnel was initially – into law in 2010.
A No10 source said: “The Prime Minister said he will do this for veterans, and he is determined the government now deliver on it as a priority”.
MANIFESTO PROMISE
Speaking on Armistice Day last month during the election campaign, Mr Johnson pledged: “If I’m elected on December 12, I want the message from my government to our Armed Forces to be louder and clearer than ever: we salute you and we will always support you.
Up to 1,000 vets are facing fresh legal probes as officials re-investigate all 302 Army killings over four decades.
Campaigning Tory MP and former Army officer Colonel Bob Stewart told The Sun said: “I am very pleased about this.
“Equally I now want to see fast action as there are a number of veterans under actual investigation right now who are old and don’t have much time left.
“This pressure should be taken off them at their time of life.”
