Major: Victims of blood scandal had incredibly bad luck
Ex-PM’s comment prompts gasps at inquiry
VICTIMS of the infected blood scandal were left shocked after Sir John Major yesterday told a public inquiry they had ‘incredibly bad luck’.
Campaigners said his remark was ‘offensive and complacent’ as it failed to acknowledge evidence that repeated warnings in the 1970s and 1980s were ignored.
The scandal led to the infection of up to 30,000 people with HIV or hepatitis C after contaminated blood products were imported from the US.
The former Prime Minister is the most senior politician to appear before the long-running Infected Blood Inquiry.
Sir John admitted that compensation payments to some victims had been too slow but – to loud gasps – he added: ‘There’s no amount of compensation you can give that could actually compensate for what had happened to them.
‘What had happened to them was incredibly bad luck – awful – and it was not something that anybody was unsympathetic to.’ Denise Turton,
whose son Lee, ten, died after contracting HIV, responded: ‘To say it’s bad luck is horrible to hear, especially after what my son went through. He lost his life, so did many others.
‘The only thing that is bad luck is that the Government didn’t listen. They were told about the products.’
Clive Smith, chairman of the Haemophilia Society, said Sir John’s comment was ‘offensive and complacent’.
He added: ‘His evidence is a reminder that successive governments have refused to accept responsibility for this treatment disaster – and the denial continues.
‘Even now, people are dying of infection contracted in the 1980s and they are dying without justice.’
Jason Evans, founder of campaign group Factor 8, said: ‘His comments about bad luck just fly in the face of all the evidence – expert evidence – we’ve heard. There are people in the room, families and victims, who are very angry, annoyed and frustrated with what was said.’
Sir John also defended the role of successive Conservative administrations, saying ‘if the circumstances of the time were to re-occur I believe the same decisions would be taken’.
Later, when lead counsel to the inquiry Jenni Richards QC returned to the idea of bad luck, he admitted his choice of words had been ‘less clear-cut’ than intended.
Sir John said he had meant the scandal was caused by lack of scientific knowledge, rather than ‘deliberate malfeasance’. As he concluded his evidence, Sir John again apologised for his ‘bad luck’ comment.