LONDON: British MPs have approved a controversial government bill to tackle the legacy of the Northern Ireland conflict, despite warnings from former military chiefs that it could expose veterans to prosecution.
The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill passed its final vote in the House of Commons by 330 votes to 178 late Tuesday and will now go to the upper House of Lords to approve.
Three decades of sectarian violence over British rule in Northern Ireland led to the deaths of 3,500 people until a peace deal was signed in 1998.
How to deal with the painful legacy of the conflict remains a thorny issue for both pro-Irish nationalists and unionists, who support Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK.
The new legislation is part of a deal reached between the UK and Irish governments in September 2025 to repeal a 2023 law that aimed to end investigations and prosecutions into crimes related to the conflict.
Passed under the previous Conservative government, it notably offered immunity to combatants on both sides, prompting Dublin to take London to the European Court of Human Rights.
The Labour government's new text removes immunity provisions and reforms the commission investigating the legacy of the Troubles, while allowing some judicial investigations to resume.
It also includes protections for former British soldiers, including a requirement for the UK attorney general to approve prosecutions for serious conflict-related offences.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant told parliament the bill was about "honesty, candour, the pursuit of justice, and most importantly, truth".
Nine retired British generals warned last year the bill was a "threat to national security" that undermined confidence in the armed forces.
"Presented as a route to justice and closure, the bill achieves neither," they wrote in an open letter to The Times.
The government subsequently introduced amendments aimed at preventing repeated probes into veterans and requiring investigators to consider the circumstances in which soldiers operated.
However, associations representing Britain's special forces said the changes remained insufficient to protect former soldiers from renewed legal scrutiny.