Rishi: Compensate the blood scandal victims ‘without delay’
RISHI SUNAK called for victims of the infected blood scandal to receive £100,000 compensation payments ‘without delay’.
The would-be Prime Minister said it was a ‘tragic injustice’ adding: ‘Survivors and their families need to have certainty now.’
Liz Truss, his Tory leadership rival, said victims and their families ‘have waited long enough to get the compensation they need’ and said that as Prime Minister she would ensure the compensation was paid ‘as soon as possible’.
Their intervention came after three former Health Secretaries said the £100,000 payments recommended by an official inquiry should be made as soon as possible given that the life expectancy of victims had been dramatically shortened.
Former Labour Health Secretary Andy Burnham called on Boris Johnson to authorise the payments before he leaves Downing Street next month.
He told the BBC: ‘Please, Prime Minister, do this today, say you’ll do it today, no one will disagree, every single MP will support it, people have waited far, far too long.’
Former Tory health secretaries Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock both said they believed that the Government should make the payments as soon as practicable.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Hunt said waiting until the end of the Tory leadership contest would be too late for many victims. Mr Hancock said there was a ‘moral duty on the State, the Government, to pay compensation’.
At least 5,000 people contracted HIV or hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s after being given contaminated blood products and transfusions on the NHS.
Last week, Sir Brian Langstaff, chairman of the inquiry into the scandal, said that interim payments of at least £100,000 should be paid ‘without delay, to all those infected and all bereaved partners’.
The Cabinet Office said yesterday that it would act on compensation recommendations ‘with the utmost urgency’ and a copy of the inquiry’s report would be laid before MPs ‘once Parliament reconvenes’ next month.