Bikers are set to descend on Westminster as part of a protest by veterans who served in the British Army during the Northern Ireland Troubles, calling for the retention of the Legacy Act.
Organisers say there could be around 1,000 demonstrators gathering on Whitehall in central London on Friday to protest against the Labour Government repealing key elements of The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023.
The Act, introduced by the former Conservative government, halted scores of civil cases and inquests linked to the conflict and offered conditional immunity for perpetrators of Troubles crimes in exchange for their co-operation with a new truth recovery body.
A number of British Army veterans have been prosecuted in recent years in connection with fatal incidents that happened during the Troubles.
The Act was opposed by victims’ groups in Northern Ireland, all the main political parties at Stormont and the Irish government.
They were vehemently opposed to the concept of offering perpetrators of crimes conditional immunity.
But the legislation received support from veterans’ groups, including the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement.
The movement is opposed to Labour’s repeal of many of the Act’s key provisions.
The legislative move will axe the contentious immunity provision and see the restoration of legacy inquests and civil cases.
However, the Government is retaining certain elements of the Act, including the recently created investigatory and truth recovery body, the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).
Paul Young, the campaign group’s national spokesman, told the PA news agency: “When the Conservative government were in power they produced the Legacy Act, which then brought about the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery.
“When the Labour Government came into power they set about repealing the whole of, or large parts of, the Legacy Act which we supported, veterans supported, across the United Kingdom.
“What that does is it puts legacy back out of an independent commission (in respect of inquest and civil claim cases), back into the Northern Ireland judiciary.
“So what we’re protesting about is we don’t want them to take the legacy (investigations) away from ICRIR, and we don’t want them to have legacy civil cases brought about.”
The 74-year-old added: “We continue to support ICRIR and the Legacy Act… so we’re totally against what the Labour Party are doing.”
Mr Young served in the Blues and Royals regiment between 1968-1975 and did “many” tours of Northern Ireland.
He said his “passion” over the issue stemmed from the prosecution of Dennis Hutchings, who served in the Life Guards regiment and who died in 2021 while on trial in Northern Ireland in connection with the fatal shooting of John Pat Cunningham in Co Tyrone in 1974.
“They sent detectives over and raided his house at four o’clock in the morning or six o’clock in the morning and dragged him out of his bed – this is a seriously ill man – and dragged him back to Northern Ireland and put him on trial,” Mr Young told PA.
“And that went on for years and he actually died in the middle of his trial and it was just appalling.
“His case had already been seen multiple times by various independent bodies and found no case to answer.”
Mr Young said he expects “maybe a thousand” people – mostly veterans – to join the protest on Friday from “all over the country”.
Some demonstrators, belonging to the Rolling Thunder group, will be coming to Whitehall on motorbikes.
In February, veterans marched along Whitehall to Parliament in a similar protest urging the Labour Government to retain the Act.
They walked in a group, many wearing army caps, and holding a banner which read: “Justice for Northern Ireland Veterans: If they won’t listen, we will shout louder.”
