Nuked blood: Minister says ‘state secret’ paperwork maintain no helpful info
A minister has insisted 150 paperwork about nuclear veterans that are hidden amongst state secrets and techniques maintain no helpful details about their lacking medical data – whereas admitting he hasn’t learn them.
The Mirror reported yesterday how a minimum of two of 150 information about blood and urine testing of troops throughout Cold War radiation experiments had been locked away from public view below nationwide safety exemptions.
The Atomic Weapons Establishment has confirmed all of them confer with blood and urine sampling throughout nuclear weapons checks, carried out to see if radiation had entered servicemen’s our bodies.
But this afternoon junior defence minister Andrew Murrison was accused of a “disgraceful response” when he was tackled on whether or not he’d accomplished a assessment of the information, which he promised earlier than Christmas.
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South Shields MP Emma Lewell-Buck, whose constituent Jack Taylor is a survivor of the experiments, stated: “Our nuclear veterans waited 70 years for recognition, and are waiting even longer for justice. During a debate last year, the minister promised ‘in the days ahead’ to examine 150 documents relating to blood and urine tests held by the Atomic Weapons Establishment. What did his examination find?”
Murrison, the Tory MP for South West Wiltshire, stated he had not but learn them. He advised the House of Commons : “That is certainly my intention. I haven’t seen them yet but I certainly intend to.”
He added: “I think she will be disappointed when she sees the documents, about the contents of those documents, because I think very few of them are actually going to give you any information that’s going to take us any further forward. “
As Ms Lewell-Buck laughed on the Opposition benches, he added: “But I’ve committed to reading them and I will certainly do so in the very near future.”
His response produced a livid response, with Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy tweeting: “Disgraceful, dismissive response from defence minister to Emma Lewell-Buck chasing whether he’s read the 150 documents about the nuclear veterans case he pledged to do before Christmas – said he hadn’t but there was nothing in them in any case. How does he know?!”
Campaigner Alan Owen, whose father died after service on the checks, added: “If there’s no information in those documents, why are they a state secret?”
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BNPS)
In 2018 the Ministry of Defence stated it held “no information” about blood checks of nuclear servicemen. In 2022, the Mirror uncovered the primary proof that it did – a 1958 memo a few pattern taken from Squadron Leader Terry Gledhill, who led ‘sniff planes’ by means of the mushroom clouds to take readings.
Since then, campaigners have uncovered dozens of Whitehall orders over greater than a decade for repeated testing of military, navy and air drive personnel, and the AWE has admitted it could maintain as much as 5,000 data, however it might value an excessive amount of to seek for them.
And dozens of veterans, widows and households have been advised such data exist, however they can’t see them, or that they don’t exist. Some veterans have discovered years of their medical information, all referring to their service on the checks, are merely lacking.
Last September in response to a Freedom of Information request the AWE printed a listing of 150 paperwork which it confirmed all referred to blood and urine checks. Their titles embrace “report on medical examinations of natives at Coober Pedy”, “medical report – blood count data” and “blood counts”.
Murrison dedicated to personally assessment the information in December, after Tory and Labour backbenchers united to name it “a cover-up”.
If such blood checks exist, they would offer proof of whether or not or not radiation might be linked to a veterans’ later diseases, and set off mass compensation payouts. If they’ve been misplaced or destroyed, that might additionally produce a authorized declare for negligence.
Veterans are elevating £100,000 for a lawsuit to take the MoD to the High Court and drive them at hand the information over. You can help their crowdfunder HERE.
