Conservative Party apologises for leader using Bloody Sunday footage in now-deleted video

LAST UPDATE | 22 hrs ago

THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY has apologised after its leader Kemi Badenoch used Bloody Sunday footage in a video criticising legal cases brought against British soldiers. 

It comes after Derry MP Colum Eastwood said he was “astounded and shocked” that the footage was used.

In a video posted across her social media accounts this week, Kemi Badenoch said Britain “should stand behind our veterans, not put them on trial decades later”.

In the video, Badenoch called on people to “think about the men and women who served this country during the Troubles, who risked their lives to defend others, to keep the peace”.

Badenoch criticised the Labour government’s planned reform of the Troubles Legacy Bill and claimed it will see British soldiers who served in the North “dragged back into court” and “put through fresh legal battles at the end of their lives”.

The video was posted across Badenoch’s social media channels, but was deleted this afternoon.

A Conservative spokesman said: “As soon as we were made aware of the footage, the video was taken down.

“We apologise for the inclusion of this material, which should not have been used and will not be used again.”

Eastwood said the use of Bloody Sunday footage in the now-deleted video in which Badenoch is “extolling the service of former soldiers is disgusting”.

He added that it is “disgusting, deeply offensive and an insult to the innocent civil rights protestors who were killed by paratroopers”. 

Thirteen people were shot dead when members of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Derry on 30 January 1972, regarded as one of the darkest days of the Troubles.

Eastwood said Badenoch has “serious questions to answer about why she chose to use footage of soldiers in Derry on that day to praise veterans in light of the serious findings of the Saville Inquiry”.

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The Saville Inquiry concluded in 2010 that none of the casualties were posing a threat or doing anything that would justify their shooting.

Then-British prime minister David Cameron apologised in the House of Commons, saying that the killings were “unjustified and unjustifiable”.

Eastwood said the video showed that “we’re a long way away from former Prime Minister David Cameron’s powerful apology for the actions of soldiers on that day”.

“I am shocked, frankly, that Kemi Badenoch has posted a video trumpeting the service of British soldiers in Northern Ireland using footage from Bloody Sunday,” said Eastwood.

“It is disgusting, disgraceful and it is an insult to the innocent civil rights protesters who were murdered in Derry in January 1972.”

“Worse, the promo video is entirely about elevating the interests of British soldiers over the needs of victims and survivors who have been forced to fight against the power and might of the British state for decades seeking truth, justice and accountability for their loved ones.”

Eastwood added that “even by the partisan standards of most Tory MPs on issues relating to the past in Northern Ireland, this is absolutely appalling”.

After the video was taken down, Eastwood remarked that Badenoch had been “forced to delete the appalling video”.

He called on Badenoch to “apologise directly to the Bloody Sunday families and acknowledge that the politics of prioritising the interests of soldiers over the needs of victims is wrong”.

Eastwood said his thoughts are with the families of those murdered and injured on Bloody Sunday.

“They have been forced to endure decades of pain and struggle but have maintained immense dignity throughout.”

Last year, a former paratrooper was found not guilty of the murders of two men and the attempted murders of five men during Bloody Sunday.

The judge concluded that the evidence presented against Soldier F, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, fell well short of what was required for conviction. 

However, he added that a number of members of the Parachute Regiment had “totally lost all sense of military discipline”.

The judge added that “those responsible should hang their heads in shame” for “shooting in the back unarmed civilians fleeing from them”. 

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