- Conservative Party Conference held in Birmingham.
- Local MP in attendance and gives his views on the major announcements.
North Warwickshire and Bedworth’s MP Craig Tracey says that he ‘fully backs’ the Government’s announcement at the Conservative Party Conference to prevent law firms pursuing legal claims against armed forces after conflicts.
Craig, who spoke out in Parliament to call on the government to end the legal claims process, said:
“This is an important step in the right direction to protect our troops who risk everything to do their job. How can they do that job properly with the threat of spurious lawsuits hanging over them from these law firms looking to make as much money as possible?”
The Government has already thrown out thousands of bogus legal claims against armed forces and the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced that they will now derogate from the European Court of Human Rights during times of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation, if the circumstances prevailing at the time make it appropriate to do so.
Mr Fallon said that had there been a valid derogation from articles applying to UK operations in Iraq and Afghanistan from the outset, a large proportion of the current litigation burden would not have arisen.
Local MP Craig says that this is a common sense change that would help our Armed Forces in future stating that: “Derogating would remove the threat of potential legal action under specific articles and avoid the considerable stress and uncertainty caused by legal claims related to those articles, often filed long after events have occurred.”
Speaking after the Conservative Party Conference held in Birmingham this week Craig Tracey MP said:
“The Conservatives and in particular the Prime Minister Theresa May has shown that we want to build a country that works for everyone.
“I think Mrs May’s speech was inspirational and one of hope to the millions of people watching, including those in North Warwickshire and Bedworth; she wants a Great Britain that is a true meritocracy, where hard work pays. Moreover the Government must be compassionate and support those who are less fortunate; that is why the PM has brought an end to the mandatory retesting of work capability for those with chronic health conditions that not only induces stress but does nothing at all to help.”
On leaving the European Union Craig commented:
“The PM has made it clear that Article 50 will be triggered before the end of March, which, as someone who voted to leave the EU, I welcome.
“We outlined that leaving the EU gives us an opportunity to control the numbers of people coming here from Europe and the Government will also be consulting over the next few months on steps to reduce non-EU migration too, across work and student visa routes.”