Former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has criticised the London government over its plans to bring in new legislation to stop internees from being compensated for their wrongful imprisonment in the 1970s.

The move was announced by British Direct Ruler Hilary Benn to stop Mr Adams and hundreds of other republicans detained using illegal interim custody orders (ICO) from seeking financial compensation.

Mr Adams said the ban will only serve to compound the “original injustice”.

“I am not surprised by the British government’s decision to retrospectively make lawful actions it took 50 years ago that were illegal and unlawful at that time,” he said.

“A British Supreme Court judgement in 2020 ruled that almost 400 internees were unlawfully detained under British law in the 1970s.

“These internees are now elderly and some are quite poorly. They were victim of appalling treatment at the hands of the British state forces and were held in shameful conditions.”

‘The original injustice endured by the internees will be deepened by the stupidity of a vindictive British government’

Earlier this year, the British Prime Minister revealed his intention to block such compensation claims in the House of Commons.

Mr Adams accused Keir Starmer of having double standards.

“Internment was an abuse of power and a denial of human rights by the British State,” he said.

“This was compounded for these 400 because the British government breached even its own law.

“The original injustice endured by the internees will be deepened by the stupidity of a vindictive British government which doesn’t accept its own law.

“Another example of the British waiving the rules when it suits their political agenda.”

The Legacy Act stopped payouts to Mr Adams and former internees by retrospectively validating the ICOs to make them lawful and thereby halting civil claims.

In February last year, the High Court in Belfast ruled that the provisions of the Act related to ICOs were incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Labour Government has not appealed that judgment but has tabled a remedial order at Westminster that will repeal various parts of the Legacy Act.

It comes after a Supreme Court judgement in 2020 paved the way for Mr Adams to receive damages by quashing his convictions over two attempted break-outs from Long Kesh.