BORIS Johnson yesterday signalled he would protect Northern Ireland vets from unfair prosecution.
The PM moved to quell fears the newly created Historical Investigations Unit will drag hundreds of ageing former soldiers through five more years of needless probes.
Boris Johnson has signalled he would protect British Army veterans who served in Northern Ireland from unfair prosecution (stock image)
It will be set up within 100 days as part of the deal to restart the Northern Ireland Assembly.
At PMQs yesterday, Mr Johnson insisted the unit would only be allowed to investigate allegations if new evidence emerged.
He said: I think theres a good balance thats been struck in getting Stormont going again, between those who need truth and those who need certainty and the protection of our armed services.
Nothing in the agreement, I want to reassure the House, will stop us from going ahead with legislation to make sure that no-one who served in our armed forces suffers vexatious or unfair prosecution for cases that happened many years ago where no new evidence has been provided.
We will legislate to ensure that that cannot happen.
The new unit was agreed by the regions parties as part of the 2014 Stormont House Agreement, but was never set up because the power-sharing government then collapsed.
