Caine Tory Belfast News Letter

News Letter

The Northern Ireland Office shadow minister, Lord (Jonathan) Caine, tells the News Letter of his criticisms of the Labour Party government's joint legacy plan with the Irish government. Lord Caine was speaking from the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Tuesday October 7 2025. Video by Ben Lowry, editor Belfast News Letter

Transcript

00:00Well, I think the first thing I would say is we all need to see the detailed legislation.

00:05As anybody in Northern Ireland will tell you, the devil is very often in the detail.

00:10But on the reading of the joint framework that the government published a few weeks ago,

00:17it seems to me that however much they try and dress this up with protections, so-called protections,

00:24the consequences of their proposals will inevitably mean that veterans are going to be hauled once again before the coroner's courts,

00:33either remotely or in person, and remotely, believe you me, doesn't make a huge amount of difference in this context.

00:40But also, these proposals will open up once again the prospect of prosecutions.

00:47Now, we all know that that is going to be more likely in the case of veterans than it will be former paramilitaries.

00:53for obvious reasons.

00:55The protections themselves, the Prime Minister said at the Labour conference, or around the time of the Labour conference,

01:02that they were exclusively for veterans.

01:04The first briefing I had with the Northern Ireland office on these proposals,

01:07they admitted that five out of the six of the protections for veterans will be available to former paramilitaries.

01:14The only one that's exclusive to veterans is that they will be contacted in the first instance by the Ministry of Defence,

01:21that it's not a route that I suspect former members of the IRA or the UVF would want to take.

01:26So, I think there are some very serious deficiencies in the proposals.

01:31And that's before we get on to the elements concerning Dublin.

01:38Unbelievably, the government did not make it a precondition that the Irish government drops the interstate case against the United Kingdom.

01:47It should have been, drop the case and we'll talk.

01:50Instead, it's still hanging over the UK almost as a threat and a blackmail.

01:57The legislation has to be satisfactory to the Irish government,

02:00which has done nothing on legacy within its own jurisdiction since the Belfast Agreement.

02:06Otherwise, you know, we will continue this case.

02:09Thank you very much.

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