We'll do our best to defend those who defended us

THE TROUBLES were a very difficult period in the history of Northern Ireland. For decades, a brutal sectarian conflict was played out in the streets of Belfast and Londonderry, and in rural areas, too. Terrorists, from both Republican and so-called Loyalist organisations murdered innocent civilians, both Catholic and Protestant.

- By Rt Hon Mark Francois MP

British soldiers during The Troubles on Falls Road in Belfast, July 1970

Standing between them, trying to uphold the rule of law, often as “piggy in the middle”, were the brave soldiers of the British Army, deployed on Operation Banner, which lasted almost 40 years, from 1969 to 2007.

Some 300,000 regular troops, supported by reservists of the Ulster Defence Regiment and what was then the Royal Ulster Constabulary fought to keep the terrorists at bay.

Over 700 British soldiers were killed on Op Banner and thousands more suffered life-changing injuries, at the hands of both IRA and Loyalist bullets and bombs.

Many of the soldiers who fought this battle were very young, recruited from the backstreets of gritty northern towns, from Blackpool to Barnsley and Bury to Bolton, towns which we would now call “Red Wall” constituencies and which are, currently, overwhelmingly represented in Parliament by Labour MPs.

So, why on earth would those same MPs want to dishonour their local veteran's service by voting in Parliament for a Bill to reopen a seemingly endless cycle of investigations and reinvestigations into their now elderly constituents, often at the behest of Sinn Fein and their old comrades, in the IRA?

Well, on Tuesday, those same MPs will be heavily whipped to vote for Labour's new Northern Ireland Troubles Bill - which does exactly that.