Theresa May faced down criticism from the defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, to launch a long-delayed consultation on a new unit to investigate Troubles-era killings, which sources close to the process said would leave veterans vulnerable.

The four-month consultation was launched on Friday, amid a bitter cabinet rift over the omission of a statute of limitations for service personnel.

May is understood to have backed her Northern Ireland secretary, Karen Bradley, and pushed through the plan after getting cross-party agreement from the main Northern Irish parties, who oppose an amnesty. She informed Williamson on Thursday night.

A source close to the process criticised the decision, saying the decision showed the prime minister “putting the interests of Sinn Féin and the DUP ahead of veterans”.

Williamson was among several cabinet ministers who raised concerns with Bradley at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, where he reportedly argued that soldiers and police would be soft targets for new investigations because there were existing records for them, but not for IRA members.

However, the prospect of a statute of limitations has been met by strong resistance by the main Northern Irish parties, including Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party. Unionists fear it could pave the way for an amnesty for paramilitaries and the Irish government has also raised objections.

The DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said his party instead favoured wider sweeping protections for former service personnel for all conflicts, including Iraq and Afghanistan, though the government does not believe this is a realistic possibility. Such a statute would apply when there had been an investigation that cleared the soldiers, to prevent cases being reopened when they were in retirement.

On Friday at the launch of the consultation, Bradley said there was no support for a Northern Ireland-only statute of limitations and that there was strong feeling on both sides that people did not want to “draw a line in the sand”.

“The people have been very clear to me in Northern Ireland: the way to address the legacy of the past, the way to address the legacy of the Troubles is for people to go through this process of understanding what happened, for victims to find out the truth and to see justice being done,” she told the Press Association.

“That is what people have been clear they want ... they want to deal with it this way and that’s what I support.”

Bradley formally launched the consultation on Friday to create four new institutions that the government agreed to establish as part of the Stormont House agreement.



It will seek expert opinions on new mechanisms to investigate, document and uncover the truth of unsolved murders during the 30-year conflict. The government is expected to spend £150m over five years on the institutions.

Bradley said she had “heard deeply moving stories about the suffering that victims and survivors have lived with for decades, and the profound and lasting impact on individuals, families and communities”.



“This consultation provides the opportunity to begin a process that has the potential to provide better outcomes for victims, survivors and their families,” she said. “There is broad agreement that the current complex system does not work well for anyone and we are determined to put that right.”

Bradley said the consultation was aimed at listening to victims and communities.

“Now is the time for everyone with an interest in addressing the legacy of Northern Ireland’s troubled past to have their say.”

The four institutions in the 2014 Stormont House agreement are: the historical investigations unit; a commission on information retrieval to allow families to privately receive information about the deaths of loved ones; an oral history archive; and an implementation and reconciliation group to promote anti-sectarianism.

Speaking at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, the chair of the defence select committee, Julian Lewis, asked May to ensure the option for a statute of limitations was “not excluded from that consultation exercise”.



May said she wanted a solution that would protect veterans. “The only people being investigated for these issues that happened in the past are those in our armed forces, or those who served in law enforcement. That is patently unfair. Terrorists are not being investigated: they should be investigated and that is what the government wants to see.”

The most recent Police Service of Northern Ireland statistics show resources are in fact being used to investigate paramilitaries, and more cases have been pursued against them than members of the armed forces or police.