Relatives of people murdered by the IRA have made a concerted attack on Tony Blair, accusing the former prime minister of betraying them twice over.
Families have blamed Blair for two secret deals – one of which led to British relatives missing out on millions of pounds in compensation payments and another that has allowed IRA suspects on the run to evade justice.
Aileen Quinton, whose mother Alberta died at the age of 72 in the Enniskillen bombing on Remembrance Sunday in 1987, said: “There are no depths of immorality, betrayal and treason that Tony Blair is not capable of. I would put nothing past Tony Blair.”
Miss Quinton, 55, who worked for the Metropolitan Police for 30 years, was one of 150 victims and their relatives bringing a class action in the US courts against Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his Libyan regime that had supplied the plastic explosive Semtex to the IRA. Semtex was used to detonate bombs at Enniskillen and Harrods, and in other atrocities.
The court action was halted in 2008 following a deal struck between Gaddafi and President George W Bush, aided by an intervention from Blair. The deal meant that American victims of Libyan-sponsored terrorism shared a billion pounds in compensation while British families received nothing. Gaddafi had asked Blair to intervene.
The anger over Blair's apparent interference – disclosed last year by The Telegraph – has been compounded by the discovery that while in power Blair's government negotiated a deal that effectively gave an amnesty to IRA terrorists on the run.
Almost 200 so-called “comfort” letters were sent to alleged IRA terrorists following a secret deal between Blair and Sinn Fein.
The existence of the letters became known when John Downey, charged with killing four soldiers in the Hyde Park bombing in London in 1982, was acquitted last month after it emerged he had received reassurance he was not a wanted man.