Keir Starmer warned he dangers “being complicit” on Nuked Blood Scandal

Keir Starmer was warned he risks “being complicit” in a crime if he does not take immediate action to end the Nuked Blood Scandal.

On the day the Prime Minister announced a Hillsborough Law to end official cover-ups, the Mirror presented its evidence of a conspiracy operating for decades in the Atomic Weapons Establishment.

Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said that our proof of blood and urine tests on troops who were deliberately exposed to radiation made it the “greatest outstanding injustice of them all”.

And veterans demanded a personal meeting with the PM – a former head of the Crown Prosecution Service – to lay out the evidence that backs up their call for an apology, compensation, and commemoration.

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Around 22,000 servicemen, and thousands more from the Commonwealth, took part in 45 nuclear weapon tests and nearly 600 radiation experiments in Australia and the South Pacific between 1952 and 1967.

Information about blood testing has been removed from their medical records, and some has been found at the AWE where it was locked behind bogus claims of national security.

In a room at the Labour conference whose walls were lined with documents the Mirror has uncovered, Mr Burnham said: “We are witnesses to a live cover-up, we are witnesses to misconduct in public office, and if we don’t act we become complicit in that live cover-up.”

He added: “I am not prepared to be complicit, and I will go to the police by the end of this year with the evidence you have got if we do not get movement. Perhaps also as the Hillsborough Law comes on to the statute book that might start to bring out the evidence that will strengthen that investigation.”

Mr Burnham blamed official refusal to tell the truth on “the iron grip of the Treasury” blocking admissions of liability, and accused the “unelected state” of dominating “supine” politicians.

He backed the veterans’ call for a one-year special tribunal or public inquiry to get to the truth and order compensation.

He said: “It needs to be ordered right now, today, with no further delay… Nobody who serves our country overseas should have to fight for 72 years after that to seek justice.”

He said Starmer was ” a man of integrity” and that the new law would give officials at the AWE protections for speaking out if they were “asked to perpetrate this cover-up”.

Veteran John Morris, 87, demanded a meeting with Starmer and his deputy Angela Rayner, who have both assured veterans they would deliver a solution once they gained power.

He said: “I’m prepared to wait a few months. But I won’t wait forever. Make no mistake, there has been pain on this road. It’s one of those living nightmares that you cannot put away.”

The fringe meeting gave him a standing ovation as Mr Burnham, known as ‘King of the North’, presented him with the nuclear test medal which he campaigned for.

The veterans are now calling on the new government to tell the truth, with an apology, compensation, and a memorial of national significance to commemorate all those who took part in creating the nuclear deterrent.

Luton MP Rachel Hopkins, ministerial aide to Defence Secretary John Healey, said she would report the evidence and veterans’ demands back to the frontbench team.

“The case has been made very powerfully today, there are absolutely questions that need answering,” she said. “Time is of the essence, I know, but the key thing is to take that fresh perspective of a new government and look at how to take this forward.”

Veterans also await the result of a medal review after the previous government blocked hundreds of them qualifying for the medal which was announced after a four-year Mirror campaign. Yesterday Veterans Minister Al Carns said the process was underway but could provide no timeline for a decision.