Campaigner urges UK to scrap Legacy Bill that’s now more ‘against victims’

A victims’ campaigner has said the Labour Government’s reforms of the Legacy Act have made it “stronger against victims”.

Campaigner Raymond McCord told an Irish Government committee that Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn had not done his “homework” and does not “give a damn about a lot of the victims”.

His son Raymond McCord junior was killed by loyalist paramilitaries in 1997.

Mr McCord appeared before the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in the Dail alongside Sandra Peake, chief executive of Wave Trauma Centre.

On a visit to Stormont last week, Irish Foreign minister Helen McEntee said any significant changes to the UK Government’s Troubles Legacy framework must have the full agreement of London and Dublin.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has indicated that new protections for military veterans will be added to the Bill his Government is taking through Parliament, which commits to fundamentally reforming structures established by the last Conservative government’s contentious Legacy Act.

This includes the removal of a controversial provision that offered a form of conditional immunity to perpetrators of Troubles crimes.

Mr McCord was asked if the joint framework on legacy announced by the two Governments last September reflected his meetings with Mr Benn.

He said: “There was no discussion really relating to legislation. He just said, this year he met with victims – I knew very few of them that actually had met him, to be honest with you, and it showed you the interest he had in victims.”

In 2007 then Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan conducted an investigation into allegations of collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and loyalist paramilitary groups called Operation Ballast.

She found that police acted to protect informants from being fully accountable to the law and revealed issues of concern in relation to other incidents including murders, attempted murders and drug dealing.

Mr McCord told the Dail committee on Tuesday: “This point I’m going to make highlights it all and the hypocrisy of it.

“I raised with (Mr Benn), we all made it clear we reject the Bill because they told us (they were) going to scrap it.

“They didn’t scrap it. They tweaked it, and it made it stronger against victims.”

He added: “When I said to him about the Police Ombudsman’s report in 2007, collusion was proven – it was Tony Blair’s government at the time – the day the report came out, Tony Blair accepted it.

“So I’m saying about that, collusion in that report. I would suggest to everyone sitting here to read Nuala’s report because it doesn’t just deal with young Raymond, it’s more important, it deals with a lot of victims that this unit carried out, the murder squad.

“Hilary Benn, when I said to him about it, had never heard of it.

“The Secretary of State trying to enforce a Bill upon victims, and he never heard of Nuala O’Loan’s report. What does that say about the man, and the homework he had done regarding victims?

“A report comes out, ‘collusion proven’, and the Secretary of State is trying to convince us – this here is a magic wand for victims? So you can guess my opinion of him.”

He added: “They need to scrap the Bill, because there’ll be legal challenges in court – obviously, again, more expenses, more time and more trauma on victims and their families.

“Once these actions start before they finish, some victims’ families who’ve been fighting for this are going to die.

“Benn and these people sitting at Westminster, including our own politicians, from both communities who sit at Westminster and Stormont don’t give a damn about a lot of the victims.”

He added: “Start doing things for the voters and start doing things for the victims. That’s not happening, so scrap this Bill.”