Victims families have previously held protests outside Parliament to call on MPs to oppose the Troubles bill
By Enda McClafferty
BBC News NI political editor
The son of a police officer who was murdered in Northern Ireland has urged MPs to scrap government plans for a Troubles amnesty.
It comes ahead of a key vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The proposed legislation would put an end to Troubles-era court cases and inquests, and offers a conditional amnesty to those accused of killings.
Louie Johnston asked MPs to put themselves in the shoes of those, like him, whose loved ones were murdered.
His opposition to the bill was echoed by the brother of schoolboy Stephen McConomy who was killed by a British solider in Londonderry in 1982.
Emmett McConomy said the government’s plan was aimed at “protecting the perpetrators of violence”.
“They are the only real winners,” he said.
Both men spoke to BBC News NI ahead of the Commons vote in which Conservative MPs are expected to overturn an attempt by the Lords to remove a key part of the bill.
Emmett McConomy says only the perpetrators of violence benefit from the bill
Peers had backed an amendment preventing a person from requesting immunity from prosecution as part of any future investigation.
But given the government’s majority in the Commons it is expected that the immunity provision will be put back in.
However it is now likely the government will fail in its bid to get the bill through Parliament before MPs break for the summer recess on Thursday.
‘Show some empathy’
Ahead of Tuesday’s vote Louie Johnston tried to make contact with some Tory MPs but did not get a response.
He was just seven years old when his father David Johnston and his Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) colleague John Graham were shot dead by the IRA in 1997 while on foot patrol in Lurgan.
Louie Johnston is asking Tory MPs to “show some empathy” by blocking the bill
“Can they put themselves in a situation where at seven years of age they were taken out of school and brought home and told their father had been killed?” asked Louie Johnston.
“I would ask them to show some empathy.
“Do they believe it is morally right to take away our avenue to justice?”
He also said that his family would not cooperate with the new body being set up under the government’s plan.
The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) will take over hundreds of unresolved Troubles cases.
It will be led by the former Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan.
Image source, McConomy family
Stephen McConomy was killed by a British soldier in 1982
The family of Stephen McConomy, the 11-year-old who died after being shot in the head by a plastic bullet fired by a solider in the Bogside in Derry, have also ruled out any engagement with the new body.
They have also called on Sir Declan to “step aside and resign”.
After a recent meeting with Sir Declan, Emmett McConomy said the Troubles bill was “cruel and unfair”.
“It is serving no purpose other than that of the Conservatives and the Ministry of Defence and victims are lost within this process,” he said.
“The real winners are the perpetrators of violence”
Sir Declan Morgan was appointed to lead the government’s proposed Troubles legacy body
Mr McConomy also claimed Sir Declan had said he would resign from the ICRIR if there was any government interference in the commission’s work.
In response, a spokesperson for Sir Declan said: “ICRIR has been deliberately set up as an independent body to ensure that it can do its vital work transparently and fairly.
“We don’t expect and would not accommodate any interference from government or from any other organisation or individual.”
Sir Declan has previously dismissed any suggestion that he may resign.
He said: “I have only just taken up this role and am certainly not envisaging stepping down.
“This is a significant opportunity – perhaps the last – to help Northern Irish society come to terms with the past, and we need to focus on achieving as much as we can.
“We know that the challenge is complex but to not confront it would be a mistake.”
The timeline may have slipped but there is no sense the government is preparing to backtrack on its Troubles bill.
That will be made clear later when Tory MPs turn up in numbers to reinstall the most controversial element of the legislation.
Offering immunity from prosecution is a key plank of the information recovery process but many suspect it won’t be enough to tempt offenders out of the shadows.
This vote on Tuesday will simply knock it back to the Lords, and with no room in the peers’ timetable it will be September before it is back on the agenda.
That still should leave the government enough time to hit its deadline of next May when the new information recovery body is due to be up and running.
