A FORMER British army chief has said he believes legislation to protect military veterans from prosecution was excluded from the Queen's Speech after pressure from the Northern Ireland Office.
The first Queen's Speech of Boris Johnson's premiership will be delivered during the State Opening of Parliament today.
On Saturday Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the general staff, said he was disappointed the clause would not be in the speech.
The proposed law would have included a statutory presumption against prosecution for current or former personnel for alleged offences committed in the course of duty more than a decade ago.
Speaking to the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme, Lord Dannatt said: "Nobody is above the law.
"If soldiers have broken the law and if there is evidence to back up charges against them, then of course they must face the rigours of the law and take the consequences," he said.
"But in the vast majority of cases, British soldiers, particularly in the campaign in Northern Ireland, got up in the morning to do their duty to keep the peace according to the rules of engagement we had, in sharp contrast to terrorists who got up in the morning whose aim was to maim and kill."
In a separate BBC interview he said he believed the legislation had been cut from the speech because of the "complex issues running with regard to Northern Ireland particularly in the Brexit context".
He said he believed NIO officials were "nervous" as they feared it would prejudice other discussions.
"This was a golden opportunity to bring legislation to parliament so members of parliament and peers could debate the issue," he said.
In response, a government spokesman said: "There are different views on how to move forward and effectively address the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland - that said, we are determined to make progress and legislate on the issue of legacy prosecutions".
Six former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland during the Troubles are currently facing prosecution.
The cases relate to the killings of two people on Bloody Sunday in Derry in January 1972; as well as the deaths in separate incidents of Daniel Hegarty, John Pat Cunningham; Joe McCann and Aidan McAnespie. Not all of the charges are for murder.
