TORY backbencher Sir John Hayes has blamed “cultural Marxism” for the decision to charge former British soldiers with murder over the killing of civilians, including children, during the Troubles in the North of Ireland.

Mr Hayes used the term, associated with the far right and anti-semitic tropes, in a letter to a former soldier which was posted online last week on a page used to organise protests in support of those facing charges over Bloody Sunday and other killings.

He claimed the decision to prosecute veterans was driven by a “cultural Marxist hatred of our national history” on the part of the “liberal establishment.”

The Tory right-winger suggested that there should be no retrospective charges against any troops “irrespective of any actions they are alleged to have committed.”

Just three former British soldiers face charges for killing unarmed civilians during the Troubles. 

The Bloody Sunday inquiry, ruled that “Soldier F” would be prosecuted for the murder of James Wray and William McKinney, unarmed protesters who he shot dead at a peaceful civil rights march in Derry in 1972.

Despite witnesses claiming to see him drop to one knee and pump a bullet into the head of Barney McGuigan, who was waving a white flag as he went to the aid of the dying Patrick Doherty, a chorus from the Conservative Party believe he should not face charges for his actions.

It is understood that as many as 200 former members of the armed forces are currently under investigation for crimes committed during the Troubles.

The Tories are however seeking to introduce a Bill which would impose a statute of limitations on prosecutions for crimes committed outside Britain that go back more than 10 years unless there are exceptional circumstances or “new and credible evidence.”

Relatives and campaign groups reject an amnesty for British soldiers warning that historical investigations into the crimes committed were highly flawed.

Paul O’Connor, spokesman of Northern Irish-based human rights group the Pat Finucane Centre, explained that Belfast’s High Court ruled in 2013 that all investigations by the Royal Military Police before 1973 were deeply flawed because they were conducted under an illegal agreement with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

“The agreement meant that after soldiers killed someone, they were interviewed by the Royal Military Police over tea and sandwiches as an internal record-keeping exercise,” he said. “There was no sense that the interviews would be part of a full investigation and the RUC very often didn’t interview any civilian witnesses.”