Latest news with #NukedBlood
Daily Mirror
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Nuked Blood: Post Office victims and Hillsborough survivors urge Met inquiry
After the Met was accused of a "cop out" on failing to investigate the Nuked Blood cover-up, victims of the Post Office scandal and the Hillsborough tragedy have joined veterans to urge ministers to intervene Survivors of multiple tragedies and state cover-ups have thrown their weight behind a plea from nuclear veterans for the Met Police to investigate crimes by the British state against its own troops. Former sub postmaster Lee Castleton, Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall and the parents of Zane Gbangbola, who were wrongly blamed for his death after hydrogen cyanide from an old dump leaked into their home during floods, have all called on the Policing Minister and Victims Commissioner to intervene. They are joined by members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice campaign, and 100 nuclear veterans, widows, wives and descendants, demanding the Met be told to investigate a complaint about a criminal cover-up at the highest levels of the Establishment. The Mirror reported yesterday how officers had refused to consider 500 pages of evidence about wrongdoing at the Ministry of Defence, and passed the complaint instead to another force. Steve Purse, who has been unlawfully denied access to blood tests taken from his dad during a series of toxic plutonium experiments in the Outback, said: "It feels like they're refusing to look over the garden fence in case it upsets the neighbours." Despite documents which appear to show people still working today in Westminster misled ministers, courts, and Parliament as recently as 2024, the Met decided it was "non-recent" and not in their jurisdiction. They referred it to Thames Valley Police, on the grounds that the Atomic Weapons Establishment is in Berkshire. "It is our view that, after reviewing the evidence, TVP will simply refer it back to the Met, and there will be a game of official ping-pong while the veterans of these tests, who have an average age of 87 and more than 9 chronic health conditions each, die at the rate of one a week," say campaigners. "We appreciate that it's a very unwelcome complaint with many political ramifications, but it is a vital one if our country is to remain a place of justice and freedom, if our veterans are to get the correct medical diagnosis and treatment, and our future troops can have full faith in the duty of care displayed by those in charge of the armed forces." * You can support the nuclear veterans' fight for justice HERE The Nuked Blood Scandal blew open in 2022 after the discovery of a memo between atomic weapons scientists discussing the " gross irregularity" in the blood of Group Captain Terry Gledhill, who had flown repeated missions through the mushroom clouds to gather samples. It has since led to the discovery of dozens of orders for blood testing, covering thousands of men in all three armed forces, and Commonwealth troops and civilians, for more than a decade. Veterans have found the results are now missing from their records. Some have been found on a secret database at the AWE, which ministers have ordered to be published. But there is also evidence that officials covered up the monitoring. In 2018, Parliament was told the MoD "holds no information" about blood tests. 2022, the AWE said it held "one blood test for one member of service personnel". And in repeated court cases, lawyers who should have had access to the AWE files told judges they had seen no evidence of such information. Last year, officials drafted responses from ministers in letters and Parliament claiming that the AWE held no medical records. Yet when 4,000 pages from the AWE were released, they contained blood tests, blood data, and completed medical record forms, as well as faxes between officials agreeing "lines to take" with ministers and the press that blood tests were never done. The campaigners have written to Policing Minister Diana Johnson, Victims Commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and London Victims Commissioner Clare Waxman to urge them to raise the case with Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. Their letter asks the minister and others to "ensure that our case is assessed and investigated as a criminal allegation of national importance, centred on Whitehall, and that all the appropriate resources are given to it for that investigation to be both rapid and thorough". The Home Office was approached for comment.
Daily Mirror
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Video of Labour's broken promises to nuke veterans gets 3 million views
Labour is under pressure to act on the Nuked Blood scandal after a video of ministers' broken promises was seen by 3 million people The 3 Cabinet ministers who made promises to nuke veterans A video detailing Labour's broken promises to nuclear veterans has been seen by more people than the 10 o'clock news. Growing awareness of the goverment's failure to resolve the £5bn Nuked Blood scandal is now putting ministers under pressure to come up with answers. A defence minister is expected to make a written statement to the House of Commons tomorrow to reveal interim findings of a review into allegations of human radiation experiments carried out on troops in the Cold War. And it comes as more evidence emerges of veterans' medical records being tampered with to remove evidence of monitoring them before, during and after they served at nuclear weapons tests. Peter Stefanovic, lawyer and founder of the Campaign for Social Justice, has compiled clips of Defence Secretary John Healey, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard while in Opposition, all calling for the Tories to set up compensation schemes for the veterans. In just six weeks it has been viewed by 3 million people - more than watch the 10 o'clock news on either BBC or ITN. * You can support the veterans' fight for justice HERE "That doesn't happen unless the public get behind something. It illustrates to the government that public consciousness and outrage continues to grow," said Mr Stefanovic. "We are hitting the public and the government in the face with this every day. Something has to give." Lawyers acting for the veterans have threatened to launch a £5bn lawsuit for the missing medical records, unless the government accepts a cheaper offer of a one-year special tribunal, with capped costs, to investigate the cover-up. And police are assessing a criminal complaint of misconduct in public office, linked to a secret database with information about blood and urine testing of troops, unlawfully locked behind national security at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. After the Mirror forced some of the files open, the entire archive is due to be declassified. Now veteran Dave Whyte - who has been ruled "vexatious"| by the Ministry of Defence over a long Freedom of Information battle aimed at discovering his radiation dose after he was sent into Ground Zero at Operation Grapple in 1958 - has discovered a huge bundle of his personal medical records have gone missing. After more than a decade and campaign group LABRATS raising his case with the Veterans Minister Al Carns, Dave, 88, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, has been sent his medical notes from his 10 years in service. It contains just 13 sheets of paper, some of them duplicates. His 10 years of annual medical examinations are missing, along with 12 sets of clinical notes and 8 records of visiting the medic. The papers show two blood tests and a chest x-ray were administered for no clinical reason, but only one set of test results is in his file. And the results of a gland biopsy, conducted two years after the nuclear tests when his lymph nodes swelled up and doctors decided he had a blood disorder, are also missing. Dave said: "I've asked again about my records from the decontamination centre I was sent to, and have been informed that I am still barred from asking FOIs. It is 14 years since I have been banned, convicted murderers serve less time." The Mirror's evidence of the Nuked Blood scandal featured in a BBC documentary last year, called Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story, and in a Newsnight special report last week.
Daily Mirror
19-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
MoD accused of 'delaying tactics' over hidden Nuked Blood records
Hidden records about the Nuked Blood scandal are due to be released, but the Ministry of Defence is refusing to answer questions about the contents Evidence of human radiation experiments by the British government is being withheld from campaigners, despite orders from ministers that it should be released. The Mirror's Freedom of Information requests to publish details about the medical monitoring of troops during nuclear weapons tests have been rejected, ignored, and refused. Even MPs in Parliament have been denied answers, despite a criminal complaint and pending £5bn lawsuit. Veterans believe it is a "delaying tactic" by officials to deny accountability for as long as possible. Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: "Veterans have always known the game plan is delay, deny, until they die. We have proved they hold evidence of these experiments, we have forced them to publish some of it, and even when the minister has instructed them to publish the rest they are fighting a rearguard action to keep a lid on it for as long as possible. "There is no good reason for it and we are asking the Defence Secretary to intervene." * You can support the veterans' legal fight HERE More than 28,000 records relating to the risks of radiation injury are known to be hidden on a database, codenamed Merlin, at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. It is locked as a state secret, on the grounds of national security. More than 150 of files were published last year after Parliamentary pressure. They contained thousands of pages of evidence about blood testing of British and Commonwealth troops before, during and after they were exposed to radiation at Cold War bomb tests. The Mirror requested a complete list of all the document titles last December, but the AWE refused to comply on the grounds that "the AWE does not hold a record list of the document titles and dates". Yet all computer databases include an internal structure with a list of file names. The Mirror requested an internal review which is supposed to be completed within 40 working days. The request was ignored for two months, and in May the AWE said: "An investigation is being carried out, but the response is taking longer than anticipated." Six weeks later, campaigning Tory MP Sir John Hayes has asked Veterans Minister Al Carns to produce the list and place it in the Library of Parliament. Mr Carns said: "Officials are working at pace to formally transfer the records on the Merlin database to the National Archives, while ensuring that sensitive information is protected... Once transferred, the records will be listed and accessible on TNA's website." There is no deadline for Merlin to be published, and it is expected to take months to check every document and redact personal data. After they are released, archivists will have to catalogue and tag an estimated 750,000 pages of information before they can be made available online. Only 10% of the veterans, who have an average age of 87, still survive. The MoD was contacted for comment.
Daily Mirror
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Keir Starmer urged to do just one thing every day to fix the Nuked Blood scandal
As millions see a viral video of Labour's broken promises to nuclear veterans, the PM is being asked every day to do the one thing that would fix it Keir Starmer was already gacing a £5bn lawsuit and police investigation over a cover-up of human experiments on British troops. Now a video of Labour's broken promises to survivors has gone viral, with 2 million people seeing proof of Cabinet ministers demanding compensation schemes they've failed to come up with in office. And after 327 days of Downing Street ignoring requests to resolve what has become known as the Nuked Blood scandal, campaigners have vowed to repost the clips every day until they get a sit-down with the PM. Starmer risks further humiliation in the months to come, with publication of an estimated 750,000 classified documents packed with juicy details of what really happened to 40,000 troops ordered to take part in nuclear weapons trials over more than a decade. Alan Owen, founder of campaign group LABRATS, said: "Keir was the first party leader to sit down with members of the nuclear community and we believed him when he said 'your campaign is our campaign'. But after almost a year in government we are no nearer the truth or justice. Veterans are dying every week, and families are suffering chronic illness and psychological harm. "We can start to fix that if we can show him our evidence of an official cover-up of biological experiments with radiation. It is fairer to the taxpayer to resolve it now, rather than wait for a judge's order. All we want is for him to look us in the eye and hear what we have to tell him." The Ministry of Defence has denied for seven decades that troops were deliberately put in harm's way during the Cold War race to create nuclear weapons. But in 2022 the Mirror uncovered a memo detailing the blood tests of Group Captain Terry Gledhill, conducted before, during and after he led a squadron of planes through the mushroom clouds to gather samples. It led to more than 30 separate orders for blood tests, covering thousands of men in all three armed forces, plus Commonwealth troops and indigenous people, between 1952 and 1967. Most were locked on a top secret database, codenamed Merlin, at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which is about to be declassified and published following cross-party pressure from parliament and the Mirror. A partial release has already revealed hundreds of named servicemen called up for testing, confirmation that thousands were involved, and analysis of the results by weapons scientists. Yet veterans who remember giving blood and urine specimens have found their medical records are missing, denying them accurate diagnosis for the high rates of cancers and blood disorders they report, as well as blocking war pensions and compensation. In Opposition, Labour bigwigs who now hold influential government roles said "it shames us as a country" that nuclear veterans did not have justice, and demanded financial compensation from the Tories. Deputy Leader Angela Rayner sent campaigners a video she had scripted herself, calling for the Tories to "set up an appropriate financial compensation programme for veterans and their descendants". Defence Secretary John Healey told the Labour Party Conference that the lack of a scheme "shames us, it shames us as a country". And Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard told the Mirror's News Agenda podcast that it was "really dumb" for the Tories not to have paid out already. Peter Stefanovic, lawyer and CEO of the Campaign for Social Justice, edited the clips together and has been sharing them on social media, gathering more than 2m views in just a few weeks. He said: "They all backed compensation for our nuclear test veterans while in Opposition, and Keir Starmer himself told them 'the country owes you a huge debt of honour. Your campaign is our campaign'. I will repost my film every single day until the PM agrees to meet with them to discuss how his government will honour the commitment his party made to these national heroes." LABRATS asked the PM for a meeting within days of his taking office, but has had no response for 327 days. The Mirror has also asked Mr Healey for a meeting, but none has been arranged. The Met Police are assessing a 500-page dossier of evidence about allegations of criminal misconduct in public office, while lawyers are preparing to issue a legal claim for the missing medical records that is predicted to lead to a 10-figure payout. Last month, the MoD admitted the monitoring "may have been" conducted without proper medical supervision.
Daily Mirror
28-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Veterans to see Nuked Blood evidence at last, but it will take 4 years to read
Evidence about Nuked Blood experiments on troops is to be made available to veterans at last, but there is so much of it that it will take four years to read through 'Lab rat' veterans used in government radiation experiments have been told they can finally see hidden documents about the programme - but it will take more than four YEARS to read them all. A top secret database about troops used in nuclear weapons tests is set to be declassified, but it is so vast that campaigners fear almost every veteran will be dead by the time it has been read. Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: "The average age of our veterans is now 86 and we hear of another one dying without justice almost every week. To tell those men they can only get the answers they've waited seven decades for it they manage to hang on a bit longer is morally abhorrent. "The government knows what's in those files: the Prime Minister should simply admit it to Parliament." The database, codenamed Merlin, was created in 2007 to hold records for a legal claim brought by veterans and widows. After the case failed, it was classified on the grounds it held information that it could proliferate nuclear weapons and aid terrorists. In 2023 the Mirror exposed that in fact that it included documents about a long-denied mass blood testing programme on troops. Such biological monitoring could provide the first irrefutable evidence of what amounts to human experiments - showing whether radiation entered the men's bodies, while scientists took note of the effects. Many veterans have subsequently found the results of the tests are missing from their medical records, and the misuse of security classifications is now the subject of a criminal allegations to police about misconduct in public office by staff of the MoD and AWE. * You can donate to the veteran's search for justice HERE A handful of the Merlin files were released last year and featured in a BBC documentary about the Nuked Blood scandal. Ministry of Defence officials have now confirmed to campaigners the entire database will be published, for free, and made available online. But the 28,000 files are estimated to include more than 700,000 pages. If veterans were able to review 500 pages a day, it would still take 1,465 days, or more than 4 years, to get through them all. Oli Troen of law firm McCue Jury which is helping veterans to sue the MoD said: "It is no surprise that, when the MoD finally releases the evidence it has kept under lock and key until now, it tells them to figure it out for themselves. "The MoD knows damn well what's in those files, and how important they are to the veterans and their families. The Prime Minister and Defence Secretary must treat these heroes with more respect and engage with them properly, not least to avoid what will otherwise be a costly and protracted legal battle that will shame this government." The lawsuit, which is expected to be issued soon, seeks to force the MoD to produce the results of the monitoring programme. The Merlin records are expected to be made available via the National Archives at Kew, but there is no timeframe for them to go online. A spokesman for the archive confirmed the records would be free to access and available for digital download, but they had not yet been provided by the MoD.
