Labour under pressure as viral video shows broken promises to nuclear veterans
A video showing Labour ministers promising compensation to nuclear veterans has gone viral, putting the government under pressure to keep its word
Pressure is growing on the Labour government to keep its years of promises to nuclear veterans, after a social media video went viral.
It includes clips of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Defence Secretary John Healey and Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard all insisting that when in power they would offer full recognition to Britain's most mistreated heroes.
More than a million people have now seen the video, compiled by social justice campaigner Peter Stefanovic. He is calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to sit down with the families affected by involvement with Cold War nuclear weapons tests.
In Opposition and the shadow cabinet, the three gave unscripted and unasked-for offers of compensation, saying "there was no good reason" not to and it was "really dumb" of the Tories not to have done it already. Mr Starmer himself told them: "The country owes you a huge debt of honour. Your campaign is our campaign." Yet after almost a year in power, nothing has changed.
Mr Stefanovic said: "Despite expressing his "gratitude" to the veterans in opposition, after becoming PM, Keir Starmer has made no public comment on the nuclear blood test programme, and 10 months since Labour came to power, there is no compensation scheme, no recognition, beyond a commemorative medal which was authorised by the Tories.
"A 'thorough' review of the archives promised to Parliament by Mr Healey has been given no budget with which to find answers. Our nuclear test veterans - national heroes to whom this country owes a huge debt of honour and gratitude, most of whom are now in their eighties and with chronic ill health - are calling on the PM to meet with them and honour the commitment which his party to them in opposition... it's the very least the veterans deserve."
The pledges were all made before evidence emerged in November 2022 of the Nuked Blood Scandal, a secret biological monitoring programme on troops involving blood tests, urinalysis and chest x-rays to determine whether radiation had entered their bodies. The MoD had long denied such a programme existed, but a three-year investigation by the Mirror has uncovered thousands of pages of evidence hidden on a secret database at the Atomic Weapons Establishment.
Discovery of the cover-up has led to a civil lawsuit, a police complaint, and a decision to declassify the entire historic archive. After it featured in a BBC documentary, a review was launched but six months on ministers have refused to reveal any findings, and admitted it has no deadline.
The video shows Ms Rayner addressing a conference of the forgotten Cold War heroes in 2022, telling them: "Myself and my Labour colleagues are calling on the Secretary of State for Defence to.... liaise with the Treasury to set up an appropriate financial compensation programme for veterans and their descendants, as America, France, China, Russia, Fiji and the Isle of Man have done."
Mr Healey told the same event: "The UK remains the only nuclear test country in which there is no scheme at all for compensation and recognition, and that's why on behalf of the British Labour Party I've said to your veterans, your campaign is our campaign. It's why British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer has met with veterans and their families, the first-ever party leader in Britain to do so. We are totally together on the campaign for justice, for compensation."
Mr Pollard is shown in a third clip, saying: "The UK, unlike many of our allies, has never compensated or recognised the sacrifice of those veterans... their significant exposure to radiation has also led to consequences for close family members and their children.
"So that's why it seems really dumb the UK government has been denying, not only a medal to those veterans for their exceptional service 70 years ago, but compensation, and Labour has been campaigning on this for quite some time."
Steve Foote's sailor dad John was sent to Christmas Island to take part in Operation Grapple in 1957. After two years of fighting he was bale to get his dad's medical records, which show he was given 6 chest x-rays in 8 years with no clinical reason. He said: "If only their actions were as powerful as their words in Opposition."
Jim Shaw, whose dad was also a veteran, added: "It's taken the government 65 years for my dad to receive his nuclear veteran's medal and certificate. The government are just biding their time, in 10 years most of the veterans will be gone.. The same will happen to the blood scandals, and the post office sub-postmasters, sadly.. Cannot and never will be trusted.."
Campaigners have requested a meeting with Mr Healey and Mr Starmer, but received no response. A spokesman for the MoD said: "We recognise the huge contribution that nuclear test veterans have made to national security. Since entering government, ministers have commissioned officials to look again at 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."
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