Jeremy Hunt said Northern Ireland veterans and IRA fighters should be “treated the same way” to protect the hard-won peace the UK and Ireland secured under the Good Friday Agreement. But the comment provoked the ire of former SAS Robin Horsfall, who issued a scathing video response condemning Mr Hunt and insisted he was not be the leader British veterans need to be in charge. In a video posted on social media, Mr Horsfall said: “How can the people of this country expect a leader to equate our troops to people who have gone out and murdered and bombed over 30 years, injuring and wounding over 50,000, murdering over 6,000 members of the security services.

“This person who is running for leadership of the Conservative Party and leadership of this country thinks he is going to be able to send our soldiers to war and then equate them to terrorists and the people they are fighting.

“If you think that this person is going to make a good leader then you have a serious problem. We need a leader who is going to go out there and support our troops.

“If our leaders are going to send our troops to war, they need to know that their back is covered. Jeremy Hunt will not cover the backs of our soldiers – he has made it clear.”

Mr Horsfall, a former SAS who was part of the response team that intervened to liberate the Iranian Embassy during the 1980 siege, insisted British soldier “deserve” a leader showing their full support for the armed forces.

He added: “We do not want another Theresa May in charge – we want our veterans to be supported. We do not want somebody who is in the thrall of Sinn Fein, out there speaking on our behalf.

“Soldiers today need to know their back is covered. Soldiers who will serve in the future need to know their back is covered and the only way to do that is by protecting soldiers who have served in the past – the veterans of Northern Ireland.

“They do not deserve this injustice and we do not need somebody like Jeremy Hunt in charge of this country.”

Mr Hunt made the controversial comment in last night’s first-ever online hustings the Tory Party has held as part of the leadership contest. The Foreign Secretary said: “The main thing, and I want to be honest about this, you know, the peace in Northern Ireland was hard won and under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, there is a need to treat both sides in the same way, however angry we may have felt about what happened.”

He later appeared to backtrack as a spokesman for the Tory frontbencher said Mr Hunt is committed to “resolving the injustice of historic prosecutions faced by our brave veterans”.

He added: “He has always been totally clear there is no moral equivalence between the actions of terrorists who seek to kill and maim, and soldiers who acted to promote peace and protect the public.”

The statement had many Northern Irish politicians speak out against Mr Hunt, with MLA Unionist Doug Beattie lamenting the unfair treatment the British Government has subjected Northern Ireland veterans to over the years.

Mr Beattie said: “The problem we currently face is that terrorists have been given letters of comfort and Royal Pardons whilst retired service personnel are being brought in front of the courts,” he said.

“The law must be applied equally and fairly and that has patently not been the case.”

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DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told the Belfast Telegraph: “What the people of Northern Ireland have had to put up with is watch the terrorists, who were responsible for so much murder and mayhem, being given an easy ride and few of them being brought before the courts,” he said.

“Whereas the focus of much of the legacy work has been on the army and the police.

“That isn’t equal and that is the problem with the current system and the sooner Jeremy Hunt acquaints himself with that reality, perhaps the sooner he will revise his position.”

Tory MPs have also condemned the Tory leadership contestant. Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois, who has often spoken out in support of Northern Ireland veterans, branded Mr Hunt as “hopping mad” 

Mr Francois told talkRADIO on Thursday morning: “I think that is ridiculous and I hope this guy is going to withdraw those comments in the next 24 hours.

“I can tell you a number of Tory MPs have gone up the wall on this.”

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