Rishi Sunak apologises for contaminated blood scandal saying it’s a ‘day of disgrace’

Rishi Sunak has apologised for the infected blood scandal as he said today is a “day of shame for the British State”.

The Prime Minister said he was “truly sorry” for the “layer upon layer of hurt endured across decades”. Speaking in the Commons, Mr Sunak spoke directly to victims and their families, many of whom watched on in the public gallery. “This is an apology from the State – to every single person impacted by this scandal,” he said.

Mr Sunak said people in power from the civil service, to the NHS, to ministers had “failed in the most harrowing and devastating way”. He made “a wholehearted and unequivocal apology” on behalf of successive Governments for this “terrible injustice”. He promised to pay “comprehensive compensation to those infected and those affected by this scandal”, adding: “Whatever it costs to deliver this scheme, we will pay it.”

The PM said a landmark report by Sir Brian Langstaff, which today concluded the NHS and Government covered up the truth, “should shake our nation to its core”. It found documents were deliberately destroyed with the truth “hidden for decades” in the worst treatment disaster in the history of the health service.

Mr Sunak told MPs: “Sir Brian finds a catalogue of systemic, collective and individual failures – each on its own serious, and taken together amounting to a calamity. And the result of this inquiry should shake our nation to its core. This should have been avoided. It was known these treatments were contaminated, warnings were ignored repeatedly. Time and again people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections. Time and again they failed to do so.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer also apologised for the scandal as he said politicians’ failures “applies to all parties”. “As well as paying tribute to the courage and determination of the victims, the infected and the affected, some of whom are here in the gallery today, I want to acknowledge to every single person who has suffered that in addition to all of the other failings, politics itself failed you,” he said. “That failure applies to all parties, including my own. There is only one word, sorry.”

Mr Starmer branded the scandal “one of the gravest injustices this country has seen”, as he said victims’ trust in institutions that were meant to protect them was “betrayed”. He said lessons must be learned to make sure “nothing like this ever happens again” and that the country must show it can “rectify injustice, particularly when carried out by institutions of the state”, adding that “frankly it is the very least that we owe” to victims.

In his report, chair of the Infected Blood Inquiry Sir Brian said Mr Sunak’s government’s “sluggish pace” on compensation had increased victims’ suffering. He said the PM’s insistence on waiting for the inquiry to finish before making a final decision on compensation has “perpetuated the injustice for victims”.

Sir Brian said: “When the Government knows, as it clearly does, that what happened was a terrible injustice, that people deserve redress, and that lack of redress perpetuates the injustice, then to delay, and thus deny, justice in order to await the ‘full context’ seems hard to justify.”

His report said Mr Sunak’s argument that it was “convention” to wait for the conclusion of the inquiry “does not provide a sufficient justification”. It said the urgency of the situation was well-known, with an estimated one person dying every four days as a result of infected blood.

In a horrifying report published on Monday the Infected Blood Inquiry details a catalogue of failings at the heart of government and the health service. The report criticised the “litany of failures” by successive governments from the early 1970s.

More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.

Paymaster General John Glen will set out the details of the Government’s compensation scheme for victims on Tuesday. The bill is expected to reach £10billion for victims and their families. It will be subject to a five-week consultation.