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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Politics
Susie Boniface

Boris Johnson urged to give medals to nuclear test veterans 'experimented on'

PM Boris Johnson has been urged to intervene and order an immediate medal and compensation for Britain's nuclear test veterans.

Around 22,000 men, many on National Service, took part in nuclear tests from 1952 to 1991.

They have an estimated 155,000 descendants, who report 10 times the normal rate of birth defects.

Labour’s Rebecca Long-Bailey said: “These people were experimented on, without consent.”

She told the PM in a letter there is scientific evidence to support their claim of genetic damage as a result of the Cold War radiation experiments, and that they were "consciously exposed to an unknown level of risk".

What is your view? Have your say in the comments section

Rebecca Long-Bailey said the veterans did not consent (Getty)

She said the government of the time "could not possibly have known what the risks of this entirely novel technology were" and said the recent Ministry of Defence-linked medal review, which decided the tests were not dangerous enough to merit a gong, should think again.

She also asked for the issue to be considered by the full Honours Committee, which is more independent of the MoD and makes formal recommendations on medals to the Queen.

"These personnel faced an unknown and potentially highly significant degree of risk when they were deployed," she said. "We would not consider conducting similar testing today as we would rightly consider it a violation of ethical standards in experimentation. These were certainly not part of normal service duties."

Miss Long-Bailey, who was part of the Labour front bench Treasury team that signed off on a manifesto promise last year offering every surviving veteran a £50,000 payment, demanded the PM provide formal compensation, medical research into veterans and their descendants, and medical help for the families under the Military Covenant, which guarantees NHS priority for those who’ve served their country.

The tests took place in America, Australia, and the South Pacific. Laura Morris’ grandfather John, 83, served in the laundry at Christmas Island in 1958. He has had a blood disorder ever since, and his son Stephen, born after he returned, died aged just six months. An autopsy was conducted, but John has never been able to get a copy of it.

Laura got in touch with her MP, Miss Long-Bailey, to ask for help in winning recognition which has always been denied to men like her grandad.

RAF pilot Eric Denson flew through the mushroom cloud of the |Grapple Y bomb in 1958 - and suffered 165 years' worth of background radiation in just 6 minutes. He took his own life in 1978 after 20 years of 'radiation headaches' (Daily Mirror)

Read the full story of the nuclear tests at DAMNED.MIRROR.CO.UK

Laura said: “Compensation would be too little, too late. We’re one of the luckier families but it’s the recognition that matters. He’s getting angrier, every time they reject it. They need to recognise the sacrifice and admit what happened. If he got the medal he deserves he’d be happy then. The Ministry of Defence seems to be actively trying to stop that happening.”

A medal review was ordered in 2018 following a Mirror campaign, but rejected it last November without taking any eye witness evidence from veterans. Ten backbench Tory MPs wrote to the PM asking him to “do what is right” and overturn the decision, but the Mirror understands they have yet to receive a reply.

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