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The next guest on tonight’s edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is Sir Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary and current chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee.
Asked if he agrees with the government’s decision to grant immunity to people who cooperate with the new independent commission into the Troubles, he says in a personal capacity that he supported the bill and worked on it in its early stages when a minister.
“Despite all the horror and the concern and the anguish that people feel, there had to be some movement here. Not just because of prosecutions, but because of the large number of inquests that by, on a conservative estimate, would take many, many years to work through.”
He says that is an issue for both the UK and Irish governments, and adds: “I’m very concerned today that relations have got to a point where both governments are now in a sort of stand-off on an issue that they really need to be working together on, on the basis that information needs to be shared with the victims of violence.”
On the apparent breakdown in relations between the UK and Irish governments, Sir Robert says: “I think that there was a feeling, clearly, that the UK government had gone too far ahead of itself in terms of acting unilaterally.”
He adds that there may be “a bit of domestic politics in this” as well.
He also points out that legal action does not negate the need to talk diplomatically, and urges both governments to do so rather than “waiting for what I think will be a rather lengthy piece of litigation” in the Strasbourg court.
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