05 March 2024 , 11:29
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Defence minister Andrew Murrison will finally be allowed to see 150 top secret files about long-hidden medical examinations conducted during Britain's nuclear weapons experiments.
But he will only be able to do it under top secret conditions inside the Atomic Weapons Establishment, with a handful of their officials to explain it to him.
The Ministry of Defence has long denied any existence of blood and urine testing of troops ordered to take part in the bomb trials. Then in 2022 the Mirror revealed a 1958 memo detailing the "gross irregularity" found in samples from Squadron Leader Terry Gledhill, who flew through four mushroom clouds.
Orders for the mass testing of thousands of troops from all three armed forces, and civilians, over more than a decade have now been uncovered. Any results could finally prove whether or not radiation entered troops' bodies, potentially leading to mass compensation payouts for the legacy of ill health they say their families suffer.
Last year, after the Mirror found a list of 150 records stored on a secret database at the Atomic Weapons Establishment with titles including "blood count data" and "medical examinations of natives", Murrison said he would personally review the "tantalising" files.
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Government sources said last month he was being blocked by AWE officials over security concerns, but now the fed-up minister has decided to go to the AWE to see the archive in person.
A Westminster source said: "The officials clearly distrust their own minister, and have had to be forced to let him in. They've got the roles of master and servant mixed up, and it does not bode well if they're now insisting he can only see the records while they're effectively peering over his shoulder."
The House of Lords was told the plans today, after questions from former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson who demanded to know what date the files were requested, and when Murrison would provide the results of his review.
The memo about 'gross irregularity' in the blood samples of Sqn Ldr Terry Gledhill which first revealed the scandalJunior defence minister the Earl Minto said the records were first requested on November 28 last year, but gave no reason for the three-month delay. He added: "The minister will personally assess all 150 documents when he visits AWE shortly and will consider their release into the public domain."
The AWE has admitted in Freedom of Information requests that the 150 files are among more than 28,000 stored on a secure computer database called Merlin, to which only seven officials with the highest security clearances have access.
Veteran John Morris, 86, who remembers blood tests being taken while he served in the laundry at Christmas Island in 1958 and whose medical records no longer contain the results, was sceptical the minister would uncover the truth.
Test veteran John Morris and granddaughter Laura Morris, holding a photograph of his son Steven, who died in his cot aged four months"I worry this is just window dressing and that a report on what he will see has already been written for him by the civil servants. How can we ever accept what they say when they have lied for so many years?" he asked.
Campaigner Alan Owen, whose father and brother died after the tests, said: "Veteran medical records have been cleverly hidden with the recipe to make nuclear weapons. We have a right to see them. We will be asking the minister for a meeting to explain to us what he saw, so we can explain the relevance to him. He's not a radiation expert and, after a lifetime of medical problems, our veterans know more about this than anyone else."
MPs have requested a meeting with Murrison to discuss the scandal, but one has yet to be arranged.
EDIT: On Wednesday March 6 Murrison told Parliament he would visit AWE "by the end of the month" and report back on his findings.
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