DURING last week’s debate on Brexit, Labour MP and Remainer Meg Hillier gave credit to the European Union for peace in Europe.

What peace?

This is an affront to the many soldiers killed in Northern Ireland, and particularly to the late parents who lived in Redcar and the family of my cousin Malcolm, serving with the Green Howards killed alongside four of his colleagues in Northern Ireland.

Malcolm was there to keep peace in that country.

On Saturday I was talking to a retired colleague of mine who was serving with and a friend of Malcolm’s and was actually nearby at the time on the same patrol.

I agreed with his comment: Ireland is conveniently forgotten about, even though more soldiers died there than the total killed in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was the late Redcar MP Mo Mowlem who was at the forefront of the peace discussions that brought the end of that conflict.

We owe nothing to Europe in this regard and should not be used in arguments for remaining a part of the EU.

Colin Hatton, Marton, Middlesbrough