Nuke vets demand to see PM as new documentary exposes ‘prison cover-up’

Survivors of Cold War radiation experiments have asked for a meeting with the Prime Minister to present evidence of crimes at the heart of government.

Nuclear veterans took to the airwaves ahead of a major new BBC documentary to say that only Keir Starmer had the power to end the Nuked Blood Scandal.

The film showcases the tragedies connected to Britain’s nuclear weapons trials, and uncovers evidence that serving government officials provided false testimony to repeated court cases for decades.

Operation Grapple survivor John Morris, 86, told BBC Breakfast: “The military have made a very good hand of covering an awful lot of this up, denying constantly that some things happened when they did. There are so many people totally unaware of the traumas and the dangers they put us in at that time.

“We were human guinea pigs, used by our own military, and I find it a disgrace.”

Successive governments have denied troops were monitored for radiation effects, while repeated orders for blood tests and the results were hidden behind claims of national security.

Archie Hart, 87, the last known crew member of HMS Diana which was ordered to sail through fallout in a human experiment to test ship and crew, said: “It wasn’t a gentle rain from heaven. It was toxic, it was deadly, it was radiation… there’s no question that everyone on that ship was conned.”

Viewers also heard how Terry Quinlan, 85, was denied a war pension for a series of possibly radiogenic tumours and a heart condition. After a surgeon found shrapnel from one of the bombs lodged next to his heart he finally received a small payoff.

“When I came away from Christmas Island, within two and a half years I had two tumours come up the size of melons,” he said. “It turned out this piece of shrapnel was 8mm long, and I believe it was radioactive.”

Radio 4’s Today programme heard that four government departments are now implicated in a criminal cover-up, with calls for a police investigation into misconduct in public office.

Mr Morris said: “I would like, desperately, to meet Keir Starmer. He promised to meet me and I wish, Keir, for you to honour that promise so we can find a pathway forward.”

The MoD says the issue of missing records is under review.

* Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story airs on BBC2 at 9pm on Wednesday November 20.