Keir Starmer vows to prevent Gerry Adams from claiming compensation

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The UK government is seeking a legal way to prevent former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams from claiming compensation for his imprisonment during Northern Ireland’s Troubles conflict in the 1970s.

“We will look at every conceivable way to prevent such cases claiming damages,” Sir Keir Starmer said in the House of Commons on Wednesday, referring to Adams and hundreds of others who have been jailed in the meantime.

Opposition Conservatives have hit out at government plans to scrap provisions of the Inheritance Act which would open the door to compensating “terrorists”. Sixteen peers criticized Labour’s proposal a paper Published by the Policy Exchange think-tank on Wednesday.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn formally began the process of overhauling the previous Conservative administration last month. law of succession, This has been rejected by the region’s political parties, victims, rights groups and the Irish government.

Benn said sections 46 and 47 of the Act – which deal with detention orders for Adams and others, or detention without trial – needed to be struck down as they had been found to be unlawful in court.

But Policy Exchange argued that Labor had not previously opposed the provisions and that such compensation would be “a very poor use of scarce public funds at a time of national economic crisis”.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described such a prospect as “shameful”.

Tory MP Julian Smith, a former Northern Ireland secretary, urged Ben to “return to the previous cross-party position that we must block compensation payments to terrorists”.

Adams The Republican Party led Sinn Féin when it was the IRA’s mouthpiece during a three-decade-long crisis involving the IRA, pro-UK loyalists and republican paramilitaries in the British security forces. He has always denied being in the IRA himself.

Adams blasted Starmer’s comments. “No one should be surprised that a British government would shirk its legal and human rights responsibilities,” he said.

He said the Supreme Court verdict in 2020 was “clear”.

“Interim custody orders authorized and not authorized by the Secretary of State are illegal. The British Government has accepted that. It is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.”

But he added that there would “almost certainly” be more legal challenges if the law is changed.

The row began a day after a date was set for Adams, 76, to stand trial in England next year as part of a civil action brought by victims of the IRA bombings, who are seeking a symbolic £1 compensation in a lawsuit against him. IRA leader

A government official termed the controversy over Sections 46 and 47 as “hypocrisy” as the law would do away with such civil actions with investigations. Labor has promised to restore them.

Adams’ legal team in the case, due to begin on March 9, 2026, is led by UK Attorney-General Richard Harmer.

A dispute over potential damages arose in 2020 after Adams appealed his successful convictions for attempting to escape from prison in 1973 and 1974.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Interim Custody Order (ICO) used to keep him in prison was invalid because it was not signed by then Secretary of State Willie Whitelaw. About 300-400 people are believed to be in the same situation.

Nevertheless, former Northern Ireland minister Lord Kane told BBC Radio Ulster that under the Carltona doctrine it was customary in the 1940s to allow junior ministers or very senior officials to sign such orders.

“In a sense, it’s not really about Gerry Adams, it’s about restoring clarity to the law and making sure we restore something well-established in our governmental procedures and constitutional practice,” he said.

Starmer defended the plan to repeal the Succession Act, saying it was “untenable”, not least because it would “give immunity to hundreds of terrorists. . . . We’ll build a better framework.”