A video has emerged of Angela Rayner calling for immediate compensation for nuclear veterans, while campaigners now say the Labour government is “dangerously close” to betraying them
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been urged to keep a promise made to survivors of Britain’s nuclear weapons tests, after a video emerged of her demanding compensation for them.
More than 100,000 people have already viewed a clip of Ms Rayner addressing a conference of the forgotten Cold War heroes in 2022, while Labour was in Opposition. She told 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.”
She was joined by then-Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey, who 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.”
The 3 Cabinet ministers who made promises to nuke veterans
It follows a video uncovered last week and since seen by almost 400,000 people, in which Mr Healey told a party event that the government’s decision to withhold recognition and compensation “shames us as a country”. Yet since taking power, Labour has made no moves to set up compensation schemes, despite facing a £5bn damages a bill and a criminal complaint.
The videos were discovered and posted online by political influencer Peter Stefanovic, CEO of the Campaign for Social Justice. He included footage from Plymouth MP Luke Pollard, who is now Armed Forces Minister, recorded in 2022 when he was shadowing the role and discussing a medal for the nuclear veterans.
Mr Pollard said: “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.”
READ MORE: Labour promises the bloody truth to nuke veterans
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Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: “Veterans and families took the shadow ministers at their word. After decades of successive governments letting them down, we hoped a change of government would bring a change of tone. Instead it is starting to look dangerously like we have been betrayed again.
“We would ask the Deputy Prime Minister, Defence Secretary and Armed Forces Minister – who have all met and offered support to victims of Britain’s nuclear weapons programme – to remember their promises, and help us to avoid costly and lengthy legal action by sitting down to discuss a special tribunal to finally uncover the truth and repay the nation’s debt to these men.”
It comes a week after veterans reported the Ministry of Defence to police over allegations of a criminal cover-up of a widepsread blood test programme which monitored the troops’ health while they were living amid the fallout. The results are frequently missing from their medical records, with hundreds of records locked on a top secret database on the grounds of national security.
Despite ministers’ previous support for veterans and an admission that the monitoring “may have been” conducted without medical supervision, the veterans’ claims have been dismissed as “unsubstantiated”. A review of the records announced last year has been given no budget and no deadline for reporting its findings. Ms Rayner has been directly approached by veterans for a meeting, but referred them instead to their local MP.
Mr Stefanovic said: “The more you learn about the Nuked Blood Scandal, the more shocking it becomes. This is no way for the government to treat national heroes. This country owes them and their families owe a huge debt of honour and gratitude, but instead successive governments have stonewalled them and subjected to decades of maltreatment and injustice. Now in power, the Labour government must honour the commitment it made to these men in opposition.”
Social justice campaigner Mr Stefanovic called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take charge of the issue, and to hold the meeting requested by veterans.
He said: “I’m asking you now Prime Minister, will you honour the commitment your party made to these national heroes in Opposition? Will you sit down with these brave men and their families? Will you listen to what they have to say and will you work with them and campaigners to ensure they and their families, who have sacrificed and suffered so much for this country, finally get the justice we all know they deserve?”
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.”