Labour Party pledges to repeal Northern Ireland's controversial Legacy Act if elected

The Labour Party has pledged to repeal the Legacy Act if they win the general election.

The Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act passed into law in September.

Since 1 May, all civil cases and inquests that were not at their findings stage were halted.

However, a High Court judge ruled in February that plans to offer conditional immunities from prosecution for Troubles-era crimes and shut down civil actions under the Legacy Act are unlawful.

Sir Keir Starmer announced his government would scrap the controversial act if he becomes Prime Minister as he unveiled Labour's General Election manifesto.

“We want to do that as quickly as possible,” Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Hilary Benn told UTV.

“The Legacy Act has no support from victims’ families, no support from political parties in Northern Ireland and Keir Starmer gave the commitment that we would repeal and replace it and we are determined to do that to restore inquests, to restore civil cases, to get rid of immunity that many people object to.

“In the end after so many years families deserve to find out what happened and we want to go back to the principles of the Stormont House Agreement. We need to consult, because we want to get as much support as we can, as supposed to the current act which has basically no support at all.”

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