The former Defence Minister Johnny Mercer has accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of surrounding himself with “cowards” and “desperately weak” advisers who had “betrayed” veterans of the Northern Ireland conflict.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Mr Mercer launched a scalding attacked on the Johnson administration, claiming his experience during two years as Veterans’ Minister had been “horrific”.
He said he had been treated “like s*** throughout” his time in office.
He also described the Government as “the most distrustful, awful environment” in which he had worked and added: “Almost nobody tells the truth.”
Mr Mercer, 39, a former captain in the Army, had told Downing Street out of courtesy of his intention to resign over his frustration at the Government’s failure to offer legal protection to ex-soldiers facing prosecution over killings during the Troubles.
However, Mr Mercer insists Number 10 leaked his planned resignation, and then fired him by text message.
He said the prosecution of veterans, many in their 70s and 80s over events as long as 50 years ago, was a “huge scandal” and an “appalling betrayal” for a Government that had failed to stop it.
Mr Mercer said: “This is not about justice. It is about a group of lawyers and average politicians sucking at a firehose of public money, trashing veterans in the process and dragging out the grief for the families.
“It’s the sort of thing the Boris Johnson I know stands up against. But leadership is all about who you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with desperately weak people who will endlessly tell you what you want to hear, driven by Spads [special advisers] who have that classic combination of over-confidence blended perfectly with total ineptitude, you will get surprises.”
He said the problem the Government had was it had promised “things to people who have already been discarded by a country they fought for”, adding: “It is almost worse than not saying anything in the first place and carrying on as if this problem did not exist.
“That has been the approach for years now: essentially, the political calculation is that veterans won’t say much, Northern Ireland is a tinderbox, and it’s not worth the grief. Well I have always made it clear that I will do whatever it takes to make people care about these people, care as much about them as we do about statues, Brexit, football and everything else.”
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
[sibwp_form id=4]
