Former British generals warn that soldiers’ fear of ‘lawfare’ is eroding trust and a 'direct threat to national security'

The group of senior armed forces officers put the loss of trust down to “lawfare”, which they defined as “the use of legal processes to fight political or ideological battles” in the open letter.

They also suggest this has led to personnel leaving the special forces.

“Today every deployed member of the British armed forces must consider not only the enemy in front but the lawyer behind," they have said, as the nation marks Armistice Day.

“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," they write, in the letter published in The Times.

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

They particularly voice 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 write.

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 Northern Ireland Troubles Bill seeks to replace the last Conservative government’s contentious Legacy Act.

The generals warn that retention and morale will suffer if soldiers believe that actions that are lawful during their deployment will later be re-evaluated in “the misplaced light of hindsight” and claim that highly trained members of special forces are already leaving the service.

They urge Sir Keir Starmer and Attorney General 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.

The generals also call for a legal framework that does not apply the ECHR and the Human Rights Act from troops’ actions while on active service.

Among the letter’s nine signatories are former chiefs of the general staff Sir Peter Wall, Sir Patrick Sanders and Sir Mark Carleton-Smith as well as the former chief of the air staff Sir Andrew Pulford.

Deputy Nato supreme allied commanders Europe, Sir Richard Shirreff and Sir Tim Radford; the former commanders of the UK’s Joint Forces Command, Sir Richard Barrons and Sir Chris Deverell; and a former commander-in-chief, land forces, Sir Nick Parker also signed.

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.”

The Government does not plan to change the UK’s domestic human rights framework.

Military personnel are bound to follow the law under the Armed Forces Act 2006 and military operations must follow international humanitarian law.