Disabled son of a veteran challenges Rishi Sunak to apologise

Beleaguered Rishi Sunak has been invited to apologise to veterans over claims he has turned his back on them.

The Prime Minister provoked fury when he left the D-Day anniversary early. In an effort to shore up his reputation took to Twitter yesterday to say: “The men and women of our Armed Forces are the best of Britain. This Armed Forces Wekk, we express our immense gratitude for their service, which keeps our nation strong and free.”

It was met with a torrent of scorn online from people accusing him of disrespect and threatening to freeze young people’s bank accounts if they do not sign up to his national service scheme.

But it also led to a heartfelt video plea from dad Steve Purse, whose father was a sergeant in the Royal Air Force.

Steve was born with an undiagnosable form of short stature, a bent spine, hydrocephaly, and a leg twisted the wrong way. Now aged 50, doctors have told him no-one else in the world has the same genetic mutation, which he believes is connected to his father’s service at Britain’s nuclear weapons tests.

David Purse was in charge of the airfield at Maralinga, South Australia, in 1963, where almost 600 toxic radiation experiments were conducted. They were used to refine elements of hydrogen bombs exploded later in the Pacific, and to simulate ‘broken arrow’ accidents and fires.

David later married, and Steve was born in 1973. His son Sascha, aged 3, has recently had to undergo surgery to remove baby teeth after he was found to have a congenital defect causing a lack of enamel.

Steve was granted a medal in honour of his dad’s service, after a five-year campaign by the Mirror, but he and his mum have been unlawfully denied access to David’s medical records, which are believed to contain results of blood tests which would show whether he was exposed to radiation.

Sunak has refused 12 invitations to meet the campaigners and see their evidence for himself, while government lawyers have been accused of deliberately stalling and waiting for elderly and infirm veterans to die.

Steve said to the PM: “Rishi, you grew up in a country that was safe, because of the nuclear deterrent my dad helped 22,000 other men to create. You didn’t have to do national service, didn’t have to lose a loved one to war. You, like me, have lived through an unprecedented period of global peace.

“Every day that passes where no nuclear weapon is fired is thanks to these veterans who are so forgotten that you have not thought it necessary to devote any time to us, yet these men are the epitome of service. They gave us peace.”

Steve, from Prestatyn, said the veterans should have been at the forefront of Sunak’s mind from the moment he took office, as his first task was to write the ‘letters of last resort’ giving instructions to commanders of nuclear-armed submarines about what to do if the country is subject to an attack.

Steve added: “As Prime Minister, they gave you a ticket to stand alongside bigger, richer nations as the leader of a world power. I know you wanted our veterans to be treated more like those in the US – well, this is your chance do what Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama did.”

The actor, who has appeared in BBC radio documentaries about the testing programme and recently helped to deliver legal papers to the Ministry of Defence, urged the PM to use the last weeks of the election campaign to say sorry.

In a direct appeal to Sunak, Steve said: “Help your nuclear test veterans and their families, meet us, talk to us, apologise to us for having forgotten what happened, and why it matters. There are 3 weeks left to make your mark, to be the first prime minister who made this right. I invite you to sit down with me, look me in the eye, and apologise to my dad.”

No10 was contacted for comment. After failing to include nuclear veterans in a manifesto list of historic injustices they vowed to resolve, the Labour leadership promised last week: “The nuclear veterans have our backing, and we’ll have their backs, if we win.”