A video posted online by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, which included footage from Bloody Sunday, has been labelled “disgusting” and “disgraceful” by a Northern Irish MP.
The clip, shared on her social media channels on Tuesday, formed part of her criticism of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill. It featured Ms Badenoch speaking, overlaid with archive material depicting British soldiers.
Foyle MP Colum Eastwood specifically identified at least one of these shots as having been filmed on Bloody Sunday. The video has since been removed from both X and Facebook.
Thirteen unarmed civilians were shot dead when members of the British Army’s Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside area of Londonderry on 30 January 1972 – the event that became known as Bloody Sunday.
The SDLP MP said in a statement: “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.
“It is disgusting, disgraceful, and it is an insult to the innocent civil rights protesters who were murdered in Derry in January 1972.”
In the video, Ms Badenoch said Labour’s bill would “drag” Troubles veterans back to court.
“It will put elderly veterans through fresh legal battles at the end of their lives,” she said.
Ms Badenoch said her party will “vote to block” the legislation and that “a future Conservative government will repeal it”, and posted a link to a petition to stop the bill.
The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill was designed to repeal and replace the controversial Legacy Act introduced by the previous Conservative government, ending the immunity scheme brought in under the law, which was ruled unlawful in the courts.
Mr Eastwood said the 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”.
In 2010, the Conservative prime minister David Cameron apologised to the families of the civil rights marchers killed on Bloody Sunday after the Saville Inquiry found all were innocent.
Mr Eastwood said: “We’re a long way away from former prime minister David Cameron’s powerful apology for the actions of soldiers on that day.”
The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.