Lawfare and military (anti-)accountability during the Conservative governments of 2010-2024

The governance of the United Kingdom by the Conservative Party between 2010 and 2024 fell at a time of acute global unrest. Conflicts raged in Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine and Palestine. Civilian harm reached devastating levels, with the UN reporting a 72% increase in casualties. While Britain would be a bystander to some of the larger conflicts of the era, in others it was an active participant. British forces were engaged in military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, against a range of enemies. Against the backdrop of these intense kinetic operations, a separate conflict was being fought in the courtrooms and institutions at home; one concerning the legal framework applicable to British forces operating abroad, as well as historical abuses committed in Northern Ireland. This was a complex, nuanced and developing legal landscape, and one which successive Conservative Governments sought to mould for operational advantage, and as we argue, to insulate the state and military from legal accountability. In this chapter we demonstrate how Conservative Governments from 2010 – 2024 attempted to shape not only the legal framework applicable to how Britain’s Armed Forces operate, but also the discourse around their conduct, the permissibility and reach of external accountability mechanisms (as opposed to the military’s internal disciplinary procedures) and expectations for when wrongdoing is alleged.

Our argument is that during this period, Conservative Governments advanced a broad anti-accountability agenda relating to the United Kingdom’s (UK) Armed Forces, seeking to reduce obligations upon the military and evade responsibility, for both the state and individual soldiers,
for human rights violations. While their attempts bore only modest success in respect of amending the law, the anti-accountability mission proved successful in redrawing the space within which the debate over military wrongdoing takes place. This is a remarkable change of direction, particularly given the tone and tenor of responses to British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees in the early 2000s where the political, media and public reaction was of strong condemnation and retribution.