Rishi Sunak’s government has been accused of “a cynical attempt” to deny compensation to victims of Britain’s nuclear testing programme, ahead of the general election.
Manchester mayor Andy Burnham this week described the ex-servicemen’s long fight for justice as “the next big scandal” after the infected blood inquiry confirmed another state cover-up.
But while the Prime Minister has vowed to pay the infected blood victims, and clear the names of wrongly-convicted sub-postmasters, he has refused 12 times to meet nuclear veterans and see evidence about their missing medical records being lost or intentionally withheld – a potential criminal offence on his watch.
Now lawyers acting for the veterans have said it will be on Sunak’s conscience if he leaves office without ordering an end to the stonewalling.
Veterans issued legal proceedings against the Ministry of Defence in March, accusing it of hiding blood tests taken during the Cold War nuclear bomb trials which could prove their claims to have been irradiated.
The MoD asked for extra time to respond, then sent a two-page response which ignored evidence blood tests took place, and claiming courts ruled on the matter a decade ago – years before evidence of the blood tests was ever made public.
Human rights lawyer Jason McCue, who is leading the case, said: “Their attempt to minimise the veterans’ decades of trauma is misguided. It’s a cynical attempt to stonewall men in their 80s and 90s.
“The MoD has refused to engage with our offer of a speedy resolution with a one-year special tribunal. Rishi Sunak is ultimately responsible for judging whether taxpayer money should be wasted in a way that only multiplies the financial and emotional costs to both the taxpayer and veterans. If we are forced to court, all those costs will be on his conscience.”
* You can support the test veterans’ legal fight HERE
Campaigner Alan Owen, who is one of the claimants, said: “This is the government playbook, whether it’s us, sub-postmasters, or victims of the infected blood scandal. Delay, deny, until they die. Sunak and the MoD are using the election as an excuse to kick us into the long grass.”
Government lawyers claimed that court judgements from 2014 had ended any legal claims, even though evidence of blood testing was not uncovered until 2022 when the Mirror reported a secret memo detailing the blood tests of Sqn Ldr Terry Gledhill, who flew through mushroom clouds in 1958.
That led to the discovery of repeated Whitehall orders for tests for the army, navy and air force over more than a decade of nuclear weapons testing. The veterans lawyers have asked the MoD to say whether these orders were followed, if there was an outbreak of “mass insubordination”, or if they were lost or destroyed. All outcomes, they say, constitute negligence and should lead to compensation and an apology for decades of suffering.
Around 22,000 men served at 45 nuclear weapons tests, 600 ‘minor trials’, and clean-ups in Australia and the Pacific between 1952 and 1967. They claim to have a legacy of cancers, blood disorders, miscarriages for their wives and birth defects in their children.
The latest government study showed they were more likely to die, and to die from cancer, than other servicemen, but official war pensions policy for test veterans did not change.
The MoD has been given one week to respond.