In November 2024, as Veterans and Armed Forces Champion for the City of Belfast I saw an opportunity to bring forward a motion on the Armed Forces Covenant. The motion was extremely simple in ask and resolved that Belfast City Council would sign up to the Covenant immediately.
My motion was submitted formally to Council on 18th November 2024. In the first instance, motions of this nature must go before the Strategic Policy & Resources Committee (SP&R) in case they come with a financial commitment for the Council.
The motion was considered at SP&R on Friday 13th December and as I suspected, was rejected by 10 votes to 8, with 1 abstention on the proposal of Cllr. Matt Garrett (Sinn Fein) and Cllr. Carl Whyte (SDLP). The crucial thing at this stage was that Sinn Fein and the SDLP did not agree to having a report brought back or equality screening carried out. This normally occurs for all motions in front of this committee. Ironically, they cited that their reason for opposing the motion was one of equality…
On Monday 2nd January 2025, at the full meeting of Belfast City Council, I proposed formally under the minutes of the SP&R Committee that we reject their decision and formally adopt the motion.
There was some controversy surrounding the vote. Once Sinn Fein had realised they were going to lose, as Alliance Lord Mayor, Cllr. Micky Murray had the casting vote in the event of a tie, they falsely claimed that Cllr. Aine McCabe had been having technical issues and was trying to get onto the meeting. In actual fact she was attending a funeral in the Republic of Ireland, so had not been present for the meeting. Despite their claims, the City Solicitor advised they could not allow her vote to count and therefore the motion was carried.
Madness then ensued as Sinn Fein, supported by their SDLP colleagues, proposed that we reject the entirety of the SP&R Committee minutes. They did this purely because of their hatred of what had just been successfully passed. This would’ve meant that everything which had been resolved at that Committee would fall, including community programmes and funding for their own community! This controversy would not have ensued if Alderman Sonia Copeland (UUP) had come online to vote for the motion. We would have won the vote outright, and the Lord Mayor’s casting vote would not have been required.
Thankfully, common sense prevailed, and this proposal was rejected, with the Green Party, who had abstained on the Covenant motion, voting against the Sinn Fein proposal.
Because of the manner in which the motion had been rejected at committee, it now needed to go back once again to SP&R Committee for a report and also equality screening. Unfortunately, this was required procedurally and if this didn’t occur, the motion would be open to challenge.
The motion returned to SP&R on Monday 27th November 2025 and once again, due to their numbers on that committee Sinn Fein and the SDLP were able to reject the motion.
The difference between the Council meeting in January and the one I face this evening is that Cllr. JJ Magee who was suspended by Sinn Fein in November 2024 following an allegation that inappropriate messages had been exchanged with a minor, was reinstated by Sinn Fein on 25th January 2025, following a lightening quick investigation by the Local Government Commissioner. This ensures that Sinn Fein’s numbers are restored for the vote this evening.
That being said, we should not lose heart. Work continues to lobby those who have not declared a side in supporting the Covenant. I call on every Councillor who is supportive of the principles of the Covenant to ensure they are present to vote in support of our Veterans this evening.
The Armed Forces Covenant is in its simplest form, is a promise by the nation that those who serve or have served will not be disadvantaged as a result of that service.
In 2019, my party leader, Gavin Robinson MP introduced a Private Members Bill in Westminster which sought to provide a legal duty to have regard to the Covenant for various organisations. As a Party, we later secured its statutory underpinning on a UK-wide basis through the Armed Forces Act. The DUP fought to ensure that Northern Ireland was fully included and despite attempts to block its implementation, that principle is enshrined in law.
This legal duty does not extend to Local Councils, 5 out of 11 of which have already signed up to the Covenant. In terms of the practical support for Veterans that Council can provide through the Covenant, I recognise that it is limited comparatively to Health Trusts and organisations such as the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), however that does not make it less important.
My desire is to provide visibility for Veterans in the City of Belfast and knowing so many of them, giving them the respect they deserve and recognising the sacrifices they have made on our behalf is of crucial importance to them.
What has been clear, is that Sinn Fein and the SDLP, who pride themselves in being the champions of equality cannot have it both ways. They cannot claim that Belfast is a City for everyone and a City of equals, when they will not support a motion that seeks to put our Veterans on a level playing field with everyone else.
I thank all the Regimental Associations, Veterans Groups and the Northern Ireland Veterans Commissioner, David Johnstone and his team, for their support for my earnest desire to see the Armed Forces Covenant adopted by Belfast City Council.
And to the Unionist Electorate, we must look at this as a clear example of our low voter turnout in key areas costing us when it comes to important votes on Council. We must ensure that we are in a position following the May 2027 Council Election, that we are in a position where there would be no doubt of a motion such as this one passing through Council. There is an opportunity for us at the ballot box to give Unionists in City Hall a better chance of success by increasing our representation.
Alderman James Lawlor
Councillor for Ormiston DEA
Belfast City Council Veterans & Armed Forces Champion