Nuke test veterans to get ‘recognition they deserve’
PM’s vow over survivors’ medals
BORIS Johnson has raised hopes that nuclear test veterans will be given medals after promising them “the recognition they deserve”.
He is now expected to overrule the medal committee and honour survivors of tests which exposed 22,000 men to “serious biological risks” of radiation.
It is a victory for the Mirror campaign, which has revealed how veterans suffered high rates of cancer and blood disorders, their wives had three times the normal number of miscarriages, and 20% of their children had birth defects.
Tory grandee Sir John Hayes, who won the concession from the PM, said: “This is a massive step forward for the campaign which I, the Mirror, and others, have been fighting for a long time. What is critical is that the PM has recognised this is not a matter for a committee, it is an issue of national importance, and it must be the Prime Minister personally who decides whether to ask the Queen to grant a medal.”
The PM has previously agreed to a request from Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey to meet veterans.
In the Commons, Sir
John asked Mr Johnson to take “personal charge” of the decision to grant the few surviving servicemen “the service medal they so richly deserve”.
Mr Johnson replied: “I certainly will take personal charge of the matter, and make sure they receive the recognition they deserve.”
Sir John, whose constituent, ex-navy SUCCESS chef Doug Hern, lost daughter Gilly, 13, to adrenal cancer, told MPs survivors had “lived with the consequences of service to our nation ever since”.
The Mirror campaign, which began in 1983, revealed how government officials suppressed details of a 1988 health study, and misled the High Court in 2006, by claiming only 159 men were in danger due to the tests when the MoD believed the true number was 2,314.
On Monday, we revealed the Government had known since the 1950s that servicemen were being exposed to “serious biological risks” from radiation.
Mr Johnson is the first PM to promise test survivors recognition since Winston Churchill ordered the first blast in 1952.