SAS veterans say government has broken contract with troops as Al Carns quits amid defence turmoil
Former and serving special forces soldiers believe they are being “persecuted” by years of legal action over historic operations in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, the SAS Regimental Association has told LBC.
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In an unusually detailed intervention from an organisation more used to staying in the shadows, the Association said the handling of legacy cases had caused “significant moral injury” among serving personnel and veterans.
Speaking exclusively to LBC, the SAS Regimental Association said: “The continuum of legal action in multiple forms against SF and conventional soldiers spanning Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, embeds the most profound feeling amongst these serving and veteran servicemen that they are being persecuted.
“It has created a significant moral injury amongst them and they have the belief that the contract between the Armed Forces and Government has been broken.”
The comments come after former Armed Forces Minister Al Carns told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that the Northern Ireland legacy issue was one of the reasons he resigned from government.
Mr Carns, a former Royal Marines officer who served in Afghanistan, said he had quit over three central concerns: defence funding, the Defence Investment Plan, and the treatment of veterans.
Read more: Defence resignations expose a brutal truth: Britain is spending billions preparing for the wrong war
He told Nick Ferrari: “I clearly set out my message, which is I think we need to get the funding settlement right, and we need to make sure the Defence Investment Plan is looking towards capability or equipment to fight the next war, not the last one.
“And the third point was around the moral component. So the legacy, the Northern Ireland legacy issue, and our issue around veterans being dragged through courts.
“And unless we sorted those issues out, then I couldn’t stand with the government.”
In his resignation letter, Mr Carns warned that Britain was failing to confront the real threats it faces.
“A serious country funds its defence to meet the threat it actually faces, not the threat it wishes it faced,” he wrote.
He added that the same failure to face difficult problems “runs through the Northern Ireland Legacy Bill”, which he described as “unfit for purpose”.
“It risks failing the very veterans it claims to protect,” Mr Carns said.
“Men and women I served with, those I buried friends alongside, people who did their duty under conditions most individuals in Westminster will never have to imagine.”
The SAS Regimental Association told LBC that former and serving special forces personnel do feel unfairly targeted.
It said successive government processes intended to deal with the legacy of the Troubles had been “exploited” to create what it called a “false narrative” about the actions of the state.
The Association said: “Legal process has been very successfully weaponised against the State and military veterans in particular.
“It is ‘lawfare’.”
It argued that veteran witnesses had been treated unfairly compared with others involved in Northern Ireland legacy processes, and said the focus on the actions of the state had become “disproportionate”.
The Association said that was partly because the state holds extensive records and discloses information, while it claimed Sinn Fein, the IRA and “other apologists for terrorism” do not engage with the process in good faith.
Asked about the impact of historic investigations on morale, the Association said the lives of veterans now in their 60s, 70s and 80s — and their families — were being damaged by repeated legal action.
It cited the case of “Soldier B”, who was involved in the 1991 Coagh operation in County Tyrone, when SAS soldiers fired at three IRA members as they were allegedly attempting to murder an off-duty soldier.
The Association said the original inquest found Soldier B’s actions were lawful, but that the families of the dead men had been given legal aid to continue appealing.
It said: “Soldier B and his family must endure this purgatory and will fear that he may die before his name is cleared.
“He is effectively gagged from speaking out personally while the matter remains sub judice.”
The Association also warned that lawful operational decisions risk being judged decades later without proper context.
It said it was “particularly shameful” that personnel of relatively junior rank were left carrying the burden of accountability for operations authorised and overseen through the chain of command.
It added that the counter-terror campaign in Northern Ireland was, “in many respects exemplary in its proportionality, patience and express legitimacy”.
The Association warned that the current legal approach could undermine confidence in future counter-terror operations.
“There needs to be shift to the assumption that the actions of the State and its agents were lawful unless there is compelling new evidence to the contrary,” it said.
Asked whether the issue is affecting confidence among those still serving, the Association said: “Anecdotally, yes.”
It called for continued MoD-funded independent legal advice for veterans, stronger protections for those who served, and a wider effort to challenge what it described as the “false narrative” around the Troubles.
Asked whether the current system strikes the right balance between accountability and fairness to those who served, the Association gave a blunt answer.
“No.”