Bereaved relatives and politicians on both sides of the Irish border have reacted angrily to reported plans by the UK government to ban future prosecutions relating to the Troubles. The ban will stop paramilitaries and members of the armed forces from being charged over incidents that occurred before the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, except for gross human rights violations such as torture or war crimes, the Times and Daily Telegraph reported. The move, which could be announced in next week’s Queen’s speech, would signal the scrapping of a key mechanism agreed by the UK and Irish governments and main Northern Ireland parties in the 2014 Stormont House agreement, which included a new independent investigation unit to re-examine all unsolved killings. Michael O’Hare, brother of Majella O’Hare, who was shot dead by a British Army soldier in 1976, said: “Our Majella was taken from us, at the tender age of 12, by bullets from a soldier’s machine gun. “Thirty-five years after her death, the MoD (Ministry of Defence) sent us a letter of apology. Yet, no one has ever been held accountable. There has not even been a proper investigation, never mind a prosecution. Now Boris Johnson is planning to forever deny our family any chance of justice.” Supported by Amnesty International UK, he is calling for an independent investigation into the killing of his sister and vowed to fight on. There was also condemnation from across the political divide in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, the deputy first minister, tweeted that it would be “another slap in the face to victims. Another cynical move that will put British forces beyond the law. This is legal protection for those involved in state murder. This is not acceptable”. The Alliance party leader and Stormont justice minister, Naomi Long, said it showed “contempt” for victims, while Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister said: “Amnesty for terrorists in the tailwind of action to protect veterans is not acceptable.” On the other side of the border, the country’s deputy leader, Leo Varadkar, told the Irish parliament a statute of limitations would fly in the face of the Stormont House agreement. “It is something that we will not support as a government because we stand with the victims and families who’ve been bereaved and damaged as a consequence of these actions,” he said. “They have a right to know what happened, and they have a right to justice. Whether the murderers were British soldiers or republicans or loyalists, they should be brought to justice.” Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Simon Coveney, met Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis in Dublin on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Coveney said: “The Irish government discussed with our UK colleagues the commitments of the Stormont House agreement and strongly advised against any unilateral action on such sensitive issues.” The collapse on Tuesday of a trial of two former British army paratroopers accused of murdering Joe McCann, an official IRA commander, during the Troubles, after statements given without caution in 1972 were ruled inadmissible, had raised doubts about the viability of at least seven other pending cases involving British army veterans. A UK government spokesperson said: “It is clear to all that the current system for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles is not working for anyone, failing to bring satisfactory outcomes for families, placing a heavy burden on the criminal justice system, and leaving society in Northern Ireland hamstrung by its past.”