Johnny Mercer, minister for veterans’ affairs, defended the UK government’s controversial legislation granting amnesties for Troubles-era atrocities in Northern Ireland, which has ended prosecutions for soldiers and others accused of historic wrongdoing.
“That totemic scourge on the lives of our extraordinary people who served in Northern Ireland has been removed,” he told the Conservative party conference.
“The sight of these men being arrested in their eighties and hounded literally to death,” he said, was “a stain on our nation”.
He also echoed Penny Mordaunt’s focus on the Labour party’s challenge to the Conservatives at the next general election.
“Kier Starmer believes in nothing at all,” he said. “He will bend to the highest bidder. At the first bit of rough water he will bail out.”