The British army has known all along that Martin McGuinness did not open fire on soldiers on Bloody Sunday, it was claimed today.

The Bloody Sunday inquiry in Derry has refused to grant full legal representation to six former members of the Official IRA who have agreed to give evidence to the inquiry.

A lawyer today challenged whether the Saville Inquiry could ever establish what the IRA did on Bloody Sunday because of a ‘‘paucity’’ of direct evidence from the group during the four years since the inquiry opened.

The Saville Inquiry today heard claims that members of the Official and Provisional branches of the IRA argued when Officials produced guns in Derry’s Bogside in the aftermath of the Bloody Sunday shootings.