Why is Gerry Adams in line for compensation from the UK taxpayer?

Keir Starmer has promised to ‘look at every conceivable way to prevent’ the former Sinn Fein leader receiving compensation. John Rentoul looks at how the possibility arose in the first place

Former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams (PA Wire)

Kemi Badenoch didn’t actually ask a question about Gerry Adams at Prime Minister’s Questions. The leader of the opposition mentioned the former Sinn Fein leader in passing in her last question to Sir Keir Starmer, which was more of a list.

“Now it turns out that his government may write a cheque to compensate Gerry Adams,” she said. “That is shameful.” Although the actual question that came at the end of the list was of the strictly rhetorical variety: “Can the country afford four more years of his terrible judgement?”

But will the government write a cheque to Gerry Adams?

It cannot rule out that possibility. It may feel that it has no choice as the result of two court rulings. But the prime minister was keen to tell the Commons that he was desperate to avoid doing so. He said: “We will look at every conceivable way to prevent these cases claiming damages.”

He said that most of Badenoch’s final question was “nonsense” but that he wanted to deal with the point about Adams. He was obviously prepared for a question about it, and tried to explain how the issue had arisen, but his attempt to make sense of the legal complications was mostly lost in the hubbub of the partisan parliamentary exchanges.

So how did the possibility arise?

The story starts with Adams’s imprisonment without trial in the 1970s as a suspected IRA terrorist. This was an emergency measure that caused resentment among Roman Catholics, who were mostly the victims of it. So much is well-known history, but the story took a new twist five years ago when the UK Supreme Court ruled that Adams’s internment had been unlawful because of a technicality – namely that the custody order had not been “considered personally” by the Northern Ireland secretary.

But wasn’t compensation banned?

As a result of that Supreme Court ruling, the Conservative government inserted a clause at the last moment in what is usually called the Legacy Act – its full title is the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. The main purpose of the act was to put an end to British soldiers being prosecuted for events during the Troubles, but the clause prevented people in Adams’s position from claiming compensation.

That clause was then found by the High Court to be incompatible with the right to a fair trial guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). So the Labour government is preparing to amend the law, which means that Adams would be able to claim compensation after all.

So now what will happen?

Today’s headlines have obviously prompted Starmer to intervene. The headlines were generated by a report yesterday from Policy Exchange, the Conservative think tank, which argues that the High Court was mistaken in its ruling that the Legacy Act is contrary to the ECHR. Although Policy Exchange was founded by Tories, this report has been backed by Ken Macdonald, a former Liberal Democrat who was director of public prosecutions before Starmer, and by Robin Butler, the grandly impartial former cabinet secretary.

The prime minister is obviously keen to find a way of blocking compensation for Adams that is compatible with the ECHR. That may not be possible – although the Policy Exchange authors argue that ministers should take a more robust approach to court rulings against them – but it could take many years before it can be established definitely one way or the other whether Adams, 76, is entitled to taxpayers’ cash.