Saville set up to satisfy Dublin, Nationalists and US

Speaking during a debate on the Bloody Sunday Inquiry at Westminster the Labour MP said the decision to call an inquiry was right "because it was part of the wider political picture in dealing with the peace process at that time and since."

He said the peace process wouldn't have happened if the then Labour Government had not tackled the issue of Bloody Sunday as it did.

DUP MP Gregory Campbell responded saying Mr Murphy's comments confirmed the beliefs of many unionists who have always viewed the Bloody Sunday Inquiry as politically inspired.

He commented: "The right hon. Gentleman has, perhaps inadvertently, touched on some of the problems with the Saville report.

"Many in the Unionist community believe exactly what he has just said - that it was a political decision taken for political reasons with a premeditated outcome in mind that determined the announcement on Saville."

The former Secretary of State returned: "It depends what the hon. Gentleman means by political. I am not saying for a moment that it was a party political issue.

"I used the term 'political' in the sense that it was part of the bigger picture to achieve peace. Both things together were important. Clearly, the nationalist community, the Irish Government, the American Government and people generally believed that we had to deal with this particular issue in the way that we did.

"That does not mean for one second that we did not have to deal with the other issues as well-I shall touch on them in a few moments-but Bloody Sunday was part of the problem."

DUP MP Sammy Wilson later argued: "It appears that, for political reasons and, he says, to advance the peace process, it was considered necessary to hold an inquiry into what had happened in Londonderry, but it was not considered necessary to hold an inquiry into the deaths of many RUC soldiers and innocent civilians who had been killed by terrorists."

Mr Murphy rejected this and said mechanisms were set up to satisfy all sections of the community.

"All that took place over a period of 15 years or so. One of the purposes of the Historical Enquiries Team, in which I was involved, was to enable us to satisfy all parts of the community that we were dealing with the past," he said.