Contaminated blood cover-up as 2,400 killed

May announces scandal inquiry

THERESA May has caved in to demands for a probe into the tainted blood scandal in which 2,400 died.

Evidence uncovered by victims’ families suggesting a cover-up over the Thatcher-era outrage paved the way for the inquiry, No10 admitted yesterday. About 5,000 British patients were pumped with contaminated blood products during the 1970s and 1980s. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information replies and official archives suggest health officials knew they were harmful but continued to give them to patients. Haemophilia Society chief Liz Carroll said: “For decades people with bleeding disorders and their families have sought the truth. Finally they will have the chance to see justice.” The Prime Minister announced the inquiry hours before she was due for a Commons showdown. Former Shadow Health Minister Diana Johnson had demanded a debate on what she called “the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS”. Thousands were exposed to HIV and hepatitis C from the imported blood products. Former Labour Health Secretary Andy Burnham warned that the probe should look at “both the original negligence and the widespread coverup that followed”. Criminal charges could be brought against those involved, Health Minister Philip Dunne confirmed.

And the wider public need to be assured the catastrophe will never happen again.

We applaud the thousands of campaigners and supporters who forced Theresa May into a humbling U-turn.

A change of mind that once again shows that the Prime Minister’s vulnerability after losing the Tory majority is a blessing for the nation.

May clearly should have conceded this vital inquiry far sooner.

The probe must be free and independent to discover what happened, why deaths weren’t halted earlier.

Transfusions infecting haemophiliacs with HIV and hepatitis C viruses in the 80s and 90s were doubly dreadful when evidence strongly indicates many could have been prevented.

Justice will hopefully be finally done but it should never have taken this long.