THE SNP's spokesperson on armed forces and veterans has hit out at the Tory Defence Minister for claiming he tried to discuss a controversial new bill with the party.

The UK Government's Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill, introduced by the Government in March, will create a five-year sunset clause for putting British soldiers on trial for alleged crimes and torture committed abroad.

Defence Minister Johnny Mercer, who is a former army officer, said he had tried to discuss the bill with the SNP but Carol Monaghan said this is not the case.

Mercer was responding to SNP MP Stewart McDonald's article in the Herald that said the bill will see Boris Johnson "blindly plough ahead with the erosion of the international rules-based order that the United Kingdom helped to create".

It went on: "The Overseas Operations Bill being brought forward this week would put a time limit on prosecutions for crimes committed by members of the Armed Forces, flouting the internationally agreed rules of warfare, effectively decriminalising torture and placing UK Armed Forces at greater risk as they carry out their work."

McDonald tweeted: "In today’s @heraldscotland: The Overseas Operations Bill doesn’t protect against false allegations. It’s bad for the armed forces, bad for the rule of law & concentrates power in the hands of the executive - that’s why senior military, legal and political opinion is against it."

Earlier this week Mercer insisted the proposed new legislation will protect service personnel from “vexatious” prosecutions after concerns about aspects of the move were raised by some senior military figures.

He said he has tried to discuss the matter with the SNP, tweeting: "It will come as a surprise to no-one that I have tried to engage Stewart and the SNP for months to constructively contribute to this bill and been met with deafening silence. And these lines are lies - we will not decriminalise torture and there is no time bar to prosecutions."

But Monaghan said this is not the case, saying: "Hi @JohnnyMercerUK, I’m the SNP spokesperson on Armed Forces and Veterans. You have not contacted me once to discuss this bill. Is this what you consider engagement?"

Critics have said the legislation could make it harder to prosecute members of the armed forces for alleged offences overseas after more than five years has elapsed.

Britain’s human rights watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said such a move was “widely recognised” as being incompatible with international human rights standards.

General Sir Nick Parker, former commander of land forces, co-signed a letter to Johnson expressing worries about aspects of the bill.

Former head of the armed forces, Field Marshal Charles Guthrie, and Tory former defence minister Sir Malcolm Rifkind were also among those who wrote to the Prime Minister.