Kemi Badenoch has apologized after a Conservative Party video opposing reforms to the Legacy Act included footage of soldiers on Bloody Sunday, calling the incident a mistake by junior staff who did not recognize the historical clip.
The video, shared on Tuesday across multiple Conservative social media accounts and Badenoch's own X profile, showed soldiers entering the Bogside area of Londonderry on January 30, 1972. On that day, British paratroopers shot dead 13 civil rights demonstrators. The party removed the footage on Friday after criticism.
Speaking to PA News on Saturday, Badenoch said she did not sign off on the video and that it was created by young staff unfamiliar with the footage. "I have apologized. I did not sign off the video," she said. "The video was done by very young people who did not recognize the footage as being from Bloody Sunday."
The video was intended to oppose Labour's Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, which seeks to replace the Legacy Act. Badenoch argued that Labour's bill would "hound very elderly veterans for things that happened decades ago."
Foyle MP Colum Eastwood called the use of the footage "disgusting and disgraceful" and demanded Badenoch personally apologize to survivors and families of Bloody Sunday victims. The Conservative Party had previously apologized on Friday, stating the video was removed "as soon as we were made aware of the footage."
This incident echoes historical findings: the 2010 Saville Inquiry concluded that none of the Bloody Sunday victims posed a threat, and then-Prime Minister David Cameron described the killings as "unjustified and unjustifiable." More recently, a former paratrooper known as Soldier F was acquitted of murder and attempted murder related to the day.
The controversy highlights the ongoing sensitivity around Northern Ireland's troubled past, as the government's legacy legislation continues to draw criticism from all sides.