Nuked Blood: Met Police handed "ticking timebomb" with report of crimes at MoD
The Met Police has received an allegation of criminal misconduct by officials at the MoD as the Nuked Blood scandal deepens
Nuclear veterans have handed the Ministry of Defence "a ticking timebomb" after lodging a criminal complaint.
A long list of officials have been accused of potential misconduct in public office over a campaign to cover up radiation experiments on troops during the Cold War.
Senior officers of the Met Police will now assess a 500-page dossier of evidence collated by the Mirror during its 3-year investigation of the Nuked Blood Scandal.
Veteran John Morris, who has suffered cancer and a 60-year blood disorder after washing contaminated uniforms at Christmas Island, has medical records missing the results of blood tests and chest x-rays taken before, during and after his service.
John, 87, of Rochdale, said: "We told Keir Starmer what happened, we told his deputy, we told the Defence Secretary, and they've failed to act, so this is what it's come to. We've given them every opportunity to make it right. They can't brush it under the carpet any longer. If the Met were to refuse to investigate, the scandal would just grow.
"This is a ticking timebomb of their own making, and the only way to defuse it is for the Prime Minister to sit down and talk to us."
The complaint was made in Westminster on the eve of VE Day, as politicians and royalty gathered to honour the sacrifices of what Starmer called "the greatest generation". But it was the 40,000 men who took part in the nuclear weapons programme who secured that peace - and who have been lied to ever since.
The scandal blew open after decades of denial in 2022 when the Mirror uncovered a secret memo about blood tests of Group Captain Terry Gledhill, who had led planes through the mushroom clouds on sampling missions for scientists.
They showed "gross irregularity" and after a long legal battle with the MoD his daughter Jane discovered most were missing from his official medical records. They also showed he had been x-rayed and blood-tested for more than a decade afterwards.
Grandmother Jane, 73, of Poole, is the first named victim in the complaint. She said: "I'm doing this for my dad because he spent years asking doctors what was wrong with him, and they wouldn't have known he was at the nuclear tests at all if he hadn't told them. They were working blind. After he died I found he'd left me a message urging me to find out the truth. He felt responsible for his men and he would want to make sure they were told the truth about what was done to them."
They were supported by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham who has likened Nuked Blood to the infected blood and Hillsborough scandals, calling it "the greatest injustice of them all".
He said: "This involved tens of thousands of people who were serving our country overseas, and here they are decades later still fighting in the wilderness to find out the truth of what happened to them and get a measure of justice."
He warned other politicians and officials that if they did not act, they risked becoming complicit.
"It's incumbent upon every single person in public office who is rightly showing respect today for those who served our country to now step forward, and get truth and justice for our nuclear test veterans. Because if you don't do that as a country, then the words that we speak about our veterans will forever be hollow words."
Voice of the Mirror: Fighting for the truth for 40 years
While all of Britain has rightly honoured the veterans who won the peace of VE Day, the Mirror is fighting for the men who secured it.
Only our nuclear veterans can claim to have saved three generations from war. Yet those heroes have been mistreated and maligned, used as 'lab rats' in human experiments and then dismissed.
The Mirror does take lightly the allegation that there may be a continuing criminal cover-up. Some of those involved may simply have made mistakes. But those errors - if that is what they were - have caused lifelong harm to our bravest and boldest, and to their families. Harm that must be resolved.
We have been careful and diligent. We have compiled and checked the evidence. And we are proud to stand alongside our test veterans as they take this momentous step, as we have for more than 40 years.
We always will. All we ask is that others do the same.
Our dossier shows how the blood testing programme was publicly denied by the MoD in 2001, the High Court was given false information about it in 2008, and Parliament misled in 2018. The truth became obvious after the Mirror uncovered a top secret database at the Atomic Weapons Establishment containing more than 30 orders for mass blood tests of troops to assess how much radiation was entering their bodies, evidence that at least 1,000 people had been tested, and names of 550 individuals called up for testing.
Civilians and indigenous people were also examined, and dozens of veterans have reported the relevant information is missing from their medical records.
Veterans claim the database was unlawfully classified as a national security risk, which kept its contents hidden from them during lawsuits and pension claims.
The evidence includes witness statements submitted on behalf of the MoD to the High Court and Court of Appeal, Freedom of Information admissions, medical records and historic documents that were hidden from the public.
The list of potential witnesses include veterans, descendants, former and current ministers, and senior officials at the MoD, AWE, and Government Legal Department. The crime of misconduct carries a maximum life sentence for any public official who has acted unlawfully and caused harm to someone as a result.
A spokesman for the Met Police said: "A report was submitted to the Met Police on Wednesday, 7 May relating to non-recent allegations against a public body. The report is currently being assessed to determine the most appropriate course of action. We have not launched any investigation at this stage."
A spokesman for the MoD said: "We refute these unsubstantiated claims, and ministers and officials acted properly based on the evidence available to them at the time. We recognise the huge contribution that nuclear test veterans have made to national security. The Minister for Veterans and People has commissioned officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway. This work will be comprehensive, and it will enable us to better understand what information the department holds in relation to the medical testing of service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests."
A spokesman for the GLD added: "The GLD is, and always has been, committed to upholding the rule of law and maintaining the highest professional standards. That includes the way in which it represents government departments in litigation. We strongly refute any claims of misconduct and consider this a serious and unsubstantiated allegation."
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