Conservatives apologise after Badenoch video used Bloody Sunday footage

The Conservative Party has apologised after a video posted on Kemi Badenoch’s social media channels used footage from Bloody Sunday while attacking Labour’s Northern Ireland Troubles Bill and defending the Conservatives’ legacy legislation.

The clip, posted on Tuesday and removed on Friday, showed Badenoch speaking directly to camera about the bill and warning that it would “drag” Troubles veterans back to court. As she argued against reform of the Conservatives’ Northern Ireland Troubles Act, soldiers were shown running in the Bogside, and at least one of the images was identified as having been filmed on Bloody Sunday. Badenoch said she had not signed off on the video and blamed “very young people” on her team.

The backlash was immediate because Bloody Sunday remains one of the most painful episodes of the Northern Ireland conflict. On January 30, 1972, 13 people were shot dead and 14 wounded during a civil rights march in Derry’s Bogside; one of the injured later died in June 1972, bringing the death toll to 14. The Saville Inquiry, published on June 15, 2010 after a 12-year inquiry, concluded that none of the casualties posed any threat and that the killings were “both unjustified and unjustifiable”. David Cameron later delivered a House of Commons apology on behalf of the state.

Colum Eastwood, the Foyle MP and SDLP leader, called on Badenoch to apologise personally after the video was posted. He said the use of Bloody Sunday footage to praise soldiers was an affront to the families of those killed and wounded, and described it as “disgusting” and “disgraceful”. Tony Doherty, chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust and the son of one of those killed, said he was astounded that the Conservative leader had used footage of the shootings to justify “wiping the slate clean” of soldiers’ crimes, and called it grossly insulting to families in Derry and beyond.

The row also lands in the middle of a wider fight over how Britain handles the Troubles legacy. Labour’s Northern Ireland Troubles Bill is meant to repeal and replace the Conservatives’ Northern Ireland Troubles and Reconciliation Act 2023, which has faced court findings that aspects of it are incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The House of Commons Library says Operation Banner ran from August 1969 to July 2007 and involved more than 250,000 military personnel. MPs backed a carry-over motion for Labour’s bill on April 27, ensuring it continues into the next parliamentary session.