HYNDBURN MP Graham Jones is to write to home secretary Theresa May in a last-ditch bid to allow an Accrington Pals re-enactment group to take their de-activated rifles to a Battle of the Somme commemoration in France.

Initially the group, from the Lancaster regiment of the Great War Society, believed European Union and French ‘red tape’ was blocking them going authentically kitted-up and ‘armed’ to the July 1 event.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Now Mr Jones, who believed he had sorted the problem with Brussels and the French ambassador, is blaming the Home Office in London for preventing the group taking its harmless firearms.

They want to take 50 specially de-activated Lee-Enfield rifles to a 100th anniversary memorial service at Mailly-Maillet where they would ‘go over the top’ at 7.20am, exactly 100 years after battle commenced.

Within 30-minutes in 1926, 585 men became casualties, 235 killed and 350 wounded, including many from neighbouring East Lancashire towns including Burnley, Blackburn and Chorley.

Under British law, bolt action rifles can be used in re-enactments as long as the firing pin channels have been sealed by welding.

The group was told a new EU directive said the rifles must have the magazines permanently blocked which would stop the group demonstrating how the guns worked.

Mr Jones said: “I wrote to the French Ambassador and he said that was untrue. He and the European Commission were helpful in facilitating the licences required.

“The UK Home Office are refusing to abide by the EU directive. I have cleared the hurdles at European and French government levels. It is the Home Office that is causing the problem.

“I am writing to Home Secretary Theresa May asking her to clear this last British obstacle so the Pals group can go equipped as they should.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Re-enactment groups may travel with their deactivated firearms to France provided they meet standards that came into force on April 8.”

“We have been working with the UK Proof Houses to ensure that certification to the new standards can be done quickly, prior to the Somme commemorations”