Sir Keir Starmer spearheaded a legal case that paved the way for hundreds of British soldiers to face pursuit over alleged war crimes.

The current Prime Minister donated his services free of charge working alongside his close ally Lord Hermer, now the Attorney General, and the now disgraced solicitor Phil Shiner on a human rights claim in 2007 that transformed the legal framework covering troops in combat zones.

Court documents uncovered show Sir Keir served as a lead barrister on the claim, which eventually forced the Ministry of Defence to launch new probes into Iraqi deaths. The ruling set off years of criminal probes targeting soldiers who were falsely accused, costing taxpayers vast sums.

Johnny Mercer, the former veterans minister, accused Sir Keir of “unleashing the witch hunt against British troops.”

PM urged courts to reopen inquiry into cleared soldier

As part of the 2007 claim, Sir Keir and Lord Hermer pushed the courts to launch a new probe into a British soldier who had been exonerated on two separate occasions over the death of an Iraqi man in 2003, telling judges that earlier investigations had been “perfunctory” and “wholly inadequate.”

The serviceman, Sgt Richie Catterall, faced false allegations for 13 years before an independent judge determined he had defended himself lawfully. The claims Sir Keir cited were discovered to be partially based on a “false document” intended to pin the blame on British troops.

Years of probes drove Sgt Catterall to contemplate suicide and left him battling severe mental health problems.

“I am gutted Keir Starmer helped bring this case against me,” Sgt Catterall told The Telegraph. “He is now the Prime Minister, and he owes me an apology.”

“You are only supposed to be investigated once. I was investigated three times. I wasn’t well when I got back from Iraq, but they kept coming for me. Keir Starmer must share some of that responsibility.”

Shiner, the solicitor who brought the case and whose firm generated the allegations, was later struck off and convicted of fraud. He made false claims and paid intermediaries to procure evidence in Iraq.

Revelations emerge as Government faces veterans backlash

Details of Sir Keir’s personal involvement have surfaced as his Government battles intense criticism from veterans following its decision to revive the possibility of prosecutions connected to Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister last week blasted Donald Trump’s claims that British troops stayed away from the frontline in Afghanistan as “insulting and appalling.”

Downing Street emphasised on Tuesday night that Sir Keir did not represent the Iraqi families in the 2007 case, but said his role in the case was to “assist the court on points of law, not to advocate for either side.”

The spokesman added: “As the Prime Minister made clear last week, he will never forget the courage, bravery and sacrifice made for their country by British servicemen and women.”

Yet Mr Mercer claimed Sir Keir harbours an ideological hostility towards soldiers.

Writing in The Telegraph, he says: “It’s clear Keir Starmer was personally involved in unleashing the witch hunt against British troops that I’ve spent the last 10 years dismantling. He believes in prosecuting British soldiers so much that he insisted on doing it for free.”

Starmer acted pro bono for human rights groups

Sir Keir donated his legal services on the case working for multiple human rights campaigners, including Amnesty International, Liberty, British Irish Rights Watch and The Kurdish Human Rights Project, which had joined the case backing Shiner’s claim. Interveners are parties that have an interest in the outcome of a legal claim but are not direct parties to it.

The legal action, known as Al-Skeini and others v Secretary of State for Defence, was launched in 2007 representing the families of six Iraqis, who claimed their relatives had been unlawfully killed by British troops following the 2003 invasion of the country.

Sir Keir, at the time a leading human rights QC, collaborated with Shiner and Lord Hermer. The human rights groups’ intervention aimed to establish that the European Convention on Human Rights applied to British forces operating in Iraq.

One of the six deaths involved Muhammad Salim, a teacher carrying an AK-47 who died during a British operation in Basra.

Sgt Catterall pulled the trigger that killed him. Military authorities initially found no wrongdoing in 2003.

Starmer told courts previous inquiries were inadequate

Yet in submissions personally delivered by Sir Keir and Lord Hermer, the courts were told that no “effective investigation” had taken place and that previous inquiries were “lacking independence” and “wholly inadequate.”

Sir Keir contended that British troops were exercising effective control in parts of Iraq and that the UK was therefore legally obliged to conduct fresh investigations under European human rights law.

The Law Lords dismissed those arguments in 2007, determining the convention didn’t apply, but the claim was subsequently taken to Strasbourg.

The European Court of Human Rights reversed the British ruling in 2011, compelling the UK to relaunch probes into the deaths.

The judgment unleashed a wave of criminal investigations targeting British soldiers, many already exonerated. Hundreds endured years of scrutiny, frequently based on accusations subsequently proven to be bogus.

Sir Keir ceased involvement in the Iraq litigation after becoming director of public prosecutions in 2008.

Government accused of anti-veteran agenda

He has faced accusations of pursuing an anti-veteran agenda since entering government. Labour secured a House of Commons vote last week scrapping immunity for Troubles veterans, which the Tories had established.

Sir Keir nonetheless grabbed the chance to present himself as a champion of British soldiers days afterwards, following Donald Trump’s suggestion that Nato troops had remained “a little back” from the front lines in Afghanistan.

He branded the remarks “insulting and frankly appalling” given that 457 British servicemen died, while his team briefed the BBC that “Sir Keir sees standing up for and defending the Armed Forces as a first order duty of his role, as both those serving and those killed in conflict can’t speak publicly for themselves.”

Soldier finally cleared after 13 years under suspicion

Following the Strasbourg judgment, Sgt Catterall underwent two further investigations. A criminal probe cleared him again in 2014 and he was ultimately vindicated in 2016 after an inquiry led by Sir George Newman, a former High Court judge.

Sgt Catterall had lived under a cloud of suspicion for 13 years by that point.

The probe determined Sgt Catterall had been justified in defending himself and that there were “sufficient circumstances” for him to believe his life was in danger.

Sir George stated he had “little or no confidence” in the reliability of evidence given by the dead man’s family and found that a “false document” had been created to shift blame on to British forces.

Sgt Catterall, now a 56-year-old grandfather who lives in Wales, attempted to take his own life several times and was sectioned on three occasions amid the stress caused by the investigations.

His daughter, Demi Catterall, questioned why Sir Keir chose to work without charging fees given his involvement in the case.

“He had no new evidence,” she said. “He went back to court with the same documents and the same lies. Why was he acting pro bono?”

Disgraced solicitor struck off and convicted of fraud

Sgt Catterall’s ordeal was one of thousands of cases spawned by Shiner and his law firm, Public Interest Lawyers.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority later struck Shiner off for dishonesty, which included fabricating evidence and making false representations to courts.

He was convicted of fraud in 2024 for dishonestly making legal-aid claims and for paying intermediaries in Iraq to procure clients and evidence.

Strasbourg ruling sparked £60m investigation unit

The Ministry of Defence faced sweeping consequences from the Strasbourg judgment.

The Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat), a unit set up in 2010 to review and investigate allegations of abuse of Iraqi civilians by British forces, was expanded to investigate the increased number of claims, the majority of which came from Shiner’s firm. Complaints rose from fewer than 100 to almost 2,500.

Ihat processed 3,392 complaints in total, with two-thirds connected to Shiner. Taxpayers funded the unit to the tune of approximately £60m before it was dissolved in 2017, having secured not a single prosecution.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister made clear last week, he will never forget the courage, bravery and sacrifice made for their country by British servicemen and women.

“During his career, the Prime Minister has represented British soldiers who were killed in action and were wrongly accused.

“The Prime Minister did not represent the claimants in this case. He represented interveners, including the Law Society of England and Wales.

“The role of an intervener is to assist the court on points of law, not to advocate for either side.

“The Prime Minister was not involved in the subsequent case heard in the European Court of Human Rights.”