MP RICHARD Drax has said soldiers are being sent into battle "with their hands tied behind their backs" over fears they are being subjected to "unjustified inquiries" about war crimes.

The member for South Dorset, himself a former Coldstream Guards officer, has called for servicemen and women to be protected from "relentless pursuit...by unscrupulous and opportunistic lawyers, actively inviting fabrications and fantasies."

He spoke out during last Wednesday’s debate on the Chilcot Inquiry report after The International Criminal Court, based in the Hague, confirmed it has begun a preliminary examination of claims of torture and abuse by British soldiers, after receiving a dossier from human rights lawyers acting for alleged Iraqi victims.

Prosecutors are now set to comb through the 2.3million word Chilcot report for evidence of war crimes committed by British troops.

Mr Drax the Echo: "Several hundred cases which have already been investigated some years ago have been reopened - I can only imagine the stress and harm that is being done to those families.

"I'm not saying don't investigate war crimes potentially committed by service personnel, but the balance is really out of kilter now, to the detriment of the armed services."

He gives as an example the story one soldier told him from his time serving in Afghanistan, when he was unable to engage a bomber laying a mine on the roadside as he didn't post an immediate threat.

"I suppose one could argue that had that bomber been shot there could have been a case brought against the soldier for war crimes," he added. "That's a very good example of where the balance is seriously wrong.

"We can't go on sending hard pushed armed forces into battle with their hands tied behind their backs and a microscope on every single thing that they do - that's not how wars are.

"In future engagements our armed forces might be more concerned with the lawyers behind them than the enemy in front of them and that is really really wrong."

Speaking in the Commons last week Mr Drax said the most recent report of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team showed that of 3,281 allegations of potential criminal behaviour, nearly 1,000 of them had already been screened out. IHAT had closed, or was in the process of closing, investigations into 59 allegations of unlawful killing, and in 56 of these cases the allegation of criminal behaviour was found to be not sustainable.

"Let me make the point that if we in this place send our brave men and women to war, we have got to protect them from this sort of activity when they come back. In my view, it is a disgrace," he added.