Starmer Led ‘Witch-Hunt’ Against Iraq Veterans
28th January 2026
Sir Keir Starmer led a legal case that opened the door to hundreds of British soldiers being pursued for alleged war crimes, The Telegraph can disclose.
The now Prime Minister worked free of charge alongside his close ally, Lord Hermer, now the Attorney General, and the now disgraced solicitor Phil Shiner on a human rights claim in 2007 that reshaped the law governing troops in war zones.
Court documents unearthed by The Telegraph reveal Sir Keir was a lead barrister on the case, which ultimately led the Ministry of Defence to order fresh inquiries into deaths in Iraq. It triggered years of criminal investigations into soldiers who had been wrongly accused, at enormous cost to the taxpayer.
Johnny Mercer, the former veterans minister, accused Sir Keir of “unleashing the witch hunt against British troops”.
As part of the 2007 case, Sir Keir and Lord Hermer urged the courts to order a fresh inquiry into a British soldier who had already been cleared twice of murder over the death of an Iraqi man in 2003 (see extracts below), telling judges that earlier investigations had been “perfunctory” and “wholly inadequate”.
My, what a surprise.