Army chiefs issue warning to Keir Starmer over ‘biggest threat to soldiers’

A group of former military chiefs have warned that the effectiveness of British forces is being undermined by “lawfare”. Nine four-star generals, or equivalent, have penned an open letter calling on Sir Keir Starmer and the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, to introduce a new legal framework to better protect troops.

They warn that service personnel’s faith in the legal system is being eroded, suggesting Special Forces members are also already leaving as a result. The retired senior officers argued “lawfare”, which they defined as “the use of legal processes to fight political or ideological battles”, is a “direct threat to national security”. They wrote: “Today every deployed member of the British armed forces must consider not only the enemy in front but the lawyer behind.

“The fear that lawful actions may later be judged unlawful will paralyse decision-making, distort rules of engagement and deter initiative.

“We will lose our fighting edge at exactly the moment it is most needed.

“And make no mistake, our closest allies are watching uneasily, and our enemies will be rubbing their hands.”

The open letter was published in The Times to coincide with Remembrance Day.

In the letter, the former chiefs voiced particular concern over the Government’s Northern Ireland Troubles Bill and the “legal activism” behind it.

“This lawfare is a direct threat to national security,” they wrote.

The letter adds: “By extending the same protections to those who enforced the law and those who defied it, the bill becomes morally incoherent.

“It treats those who upheld the peace and those who bombed and murdered in pursuit of political ends as equivalent actors in a shared tragedy.”

The bill aims to replace the last Conservative government’s controversial Legacy Act which was designed to protect Northern Ireland veterans from spurious allegations.

Veterans speaking to the Express have previously voiced concerns over the plans, with one saying it will leave ex-soldiers with less rights than the “witches of Salem”.

In the letter, the retired senior officers warn retention and morale will suffer if personnel believe that actions that are lawful during their deployment will later be re-evaluated in “the misplaced light of hindsight”.

They urged the PM and Lord Hermer to acknowledge that “an ever-broadening interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights” is being used as a tool to this end.

They called for a legal framework that does not apply the ECHR and the Human Rights Act from troops’ actions while on active service.

Signatories of the letter include three former heads of the British Army — Sir Peter Wall, Sir Patrick Sanders and Sir Mark Carleton-Smith — and a former head of the Royal Air Force, Sir Andrew Pulford.

A Government spokesperson said: “We promised our veterans who served with honour in Northern Ireland that we would put proper protections in place, and the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill delivers on that commitment.

“After the false promises of the last government, we are putting in place six real, workable protections for veterans that the failed Legacy Act never did.

“We will not allow the process, like so many times before, to become the punishment for our veterans.

“These robust safeguards will ensure the rights of those who served their nation so honourably are protected whilst providing victims with a human rights compliant, fair, and transparent system to seek answers.”

There are no plans for the Government to change the UK’s domestic human rights framework.