Badenoch apologises after Bloody Sunday footage used in post defending UK veterans | Conservatives

Kemi Badenoch has apologised after footage from Bloody Sunday was used in social media posts criticising a bill on legacy issues in Northern Ireland.

The Conservative leader said on Saturday that she did not sign off on the use of a clip from the massacre, in which British soldiers opened fire on unarmed civil rights demonstrators in Derry, and that it was distributed by “very young people”.

The video was posted on Badenoch’s social media channels on Tuesday, claiming Labour’s proposed changes would “drag” British Troubles veterans back to court.

Colum Eastwood, the SDLP MP for the Foyle constituency that covers Derry, said he was “shocked” to see Badenoch “trumpeting the service of British soldiers in Northern Ireland using footage from Bloody Sunday”.

Bloody Sunday, on 30 January 1972, is widely seen as one of the most significant points in the Troubles and is regarded as the worst mass shooting in Northern Ireland’s history.

Members of the army’s Parachute regiment shot 26 people during an anti-interment march in the Bogside area of the city, killing 13. A 14th man, John Johnston, 59, died of his injuries four months later.

Badenoch was asked about the clip during a visit to a hairdresser in south-east London.

She said: “I have apologised. I did not sign off the video. It was about a vote in parliament where Labour are putting in legislation that is hounding the very elderly veterans for things that happened decades ago, often under the instruction of political leaders who are no longer around.

“We support our veterans, but the video was done by very young people who did not recognise the footage as being from Bloody Sunday. So I apologise as well that that video went out in error.

“It was removed as soon as the party understood that that was what had been put out.”

Labour’s Northern Ireland Troubles bill aims to replace a law introduced by the last Conservative government.

The previous legislation contained a clause that would have enabled veterans to avoid prosecution for Troubles-era crimes if they provided information about unresolved cases.

It was widely opposed by victims’ groups and Northern Irish political parties and ruled unlawful after a case in the high court in Belfast in 2024.

The Labour government also wants to lift a ban on future inquests and civil actions that were halted as a result of the previous legislation.

The only soldier charged with murder in relation to the Bloody Sunday deaths, known as Soldier F, was acquitted by a judge last year after a non-jury trial in Belfast.

Bloody Sunday led to increased support for the IRA and helped boost its recruitment. The first inquiry into the shootings, headed by Lord Widgery, exonerated the soldiers.

However, after a second inquiry that reported in 2010 after decades of campaigning from victims’ families, former Conservative prime minister David Cameron said the events of Bloody Sunday were “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

He added: “Some members of our armed forces acted wrongly. The government is ultimately responsible for the conduct of the armed forces and for that, on behalf of the government, indeed, on behalf of our country, I am deeply sorry.”