SADLY, there is a concerted campaign being whipped up to mislead the public on the government’s Northern Ireland and Troubles Bill, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to state the facts and put to bed some of the complete nonsense that’s being regurgitated by anti-government media outlets.

Northern Ireland has taken huge strides since the Good Friday Agreement, but the decades of violence have left a painful legacy which many people in both NI and GB continue to live with. Of the more than 3,500 deaths during the Troubles, over 1,000 remain unsolved.

Far too many families have still, all these years later, been unable to find an answer to the simplest of questions: how did my loved one die?

We all have a responsibility to ensure that, with the passing of so much time, we do not miss our last chance to fairly and compassionately deal with the legacy of the Troubles once and for all.

The Troubles Bill will create a reformed Legacy Commission tasked with conducting legacy investigations. Engagement with the veteran community has made clear where the government needed to go further to provide reassurance that the legacy framework established by this Bill is fair and proportionate.

The Conservatives’ Legacy Act was opposed by all the political parties in Northern Ireland. It was rejected by victims and utterly failed to earn the confidence of the people of Northern Ireland. It offered immunity to IRA, UVF and other terrorist killers, who were responsible for some 90 per cent of Troubles-related deaths. It was rejected by the courts, leaving our veterans exposed. And it shut down over 1,000 investigations into the deaths of UK civilians and soldiers, most of whom were killed by terrorists on UK soil.

A reformed Legacy Commission will be the primary route for those families, with extensive powers to get the answers they need. Crucially the Bill will finally unlock information sharing by the Irish authorities. Nobody who carried out acts of barbaric terrorism on British soil during the Troubles will be given immunity. We are immensely proud of our Armed Forces, and all those who served to protect life and defeat terrorism during the Troubles.

It is vital the Bill commands the widest possible confidence among all communities. There is no question of needlessly repeating investigations, or of any veteran being prosecuted for having followed the rules. There was no equivalence between the lawful service of our veterans and the sickening actions of the terrorists. The vast majority of those who served did so with great distinction, honour and professionalism.

It is also clear that in some cases terrible errors were made, and the State must never shy away from this. As the Veterans Commissioners of NI, Scotland and Wales said in July, “this is not a call for immunity from the law, but for fairness under it”.

This new Bill will find that fairness and it is too important a Bill for a misleading narrative to develop that exploits the hurt of almost 1,000 families who deserve to know the truth after all these years.