Boris Johnson today became the first Prime Minister to promise nuclear test veterans “the recognition they deserve”.
No Prime Minister, since Winston Churchill ordered the first blast in 1952, has made such a pledge.
He now looks set to overrule a secretive Whitehall committee and award a medal to the survivors of Britain’s Cold War testing programme, which exposed 22,000 men to the “serious biological risks” of radiation.
Tory grandee Sir John Hayes, who won the concession from the PM today, said: “This is a massive step forward for the campaign which I and the Mirror, and others, have been fighting for a long time, and what is critical is that the PM has recognised this is not a matter for a committee - it is an issue of national importance, and it must be the Prime Minister personally who decides whether to ask Her Majesty the Queen to grant a medal.”
It follows a Mirror campaign for justice which recently revealed the medal committee was accepting bogus information from “compensation colleagues” within the Ministry of Defence, which has spent 70 years denying it put servicemen in harm’s way.
The veterans report high rates of cancer and blood disorders, their wives have three times the normal number of miscarriages, and 20 per cent of their children display birth defects.
The Mirror has campaigned for the veterans since 1983 and last year launched a bid for the PM to ‘Look Me In The Eye’ and hear veterans’ stories in person.
Sir John, whose constituent, ex-navy chef Doug Hern, lost his daughter Gilly to adrenal cancer aged just 13, told the House of Commons today: “They’ve lived with the consequences of service to our nation ever since.”
He said the PM had agreed to Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey request to meet the veterans, and asked: “Will he now assure the House that he will take personal charge of the decision on whether to grant the remaining servicemen, for there are few left, the service medal they so richly deserve?”
Read the full story of the nuclear tests at DAMNED.MIRROR.CO.UK
Mr Johnson replied: “I thank my Right Honourable friend very much, and I thank him for campaigning on this issue, which I know attracts support across the House. And I certainly will take personal charge of the matter myself, and make sure they receive the recognition they deserve.”
It comes after the Mirror revealed government officials suppressed details of a 1988 health study, and misled the High Court in 2006 by claiming only 159 men were in danger when the MoD believed the true number was 2,314.
On Monday we revealed the government had known since the 1950s that servicemen were being exposed to “serious biological risks” from radiation, with “genetically damaging” consequences likely to appear 40 years later.
The veterans first reported health problems in the 1980s. Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair all said there were no grounds for medals or compensation.
Under Gordon Brown, efforts were made to settle a court case brought by veterans but it was derailed by government officials who did not pass the offer to their solicitors.
David Cameron made some funding available for nuclear community families through the Aged Veterans Fund in 2014, and Theresa May said she would look into the issue.
