Nuked blood: now ministers refuse to tell families why they can't see evidence

09 March 2023 , 21:14

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Families are fighting the MoD to find out the truth about the radiation experiments their fathers were used in

The Ministry of Defence has refused to disclose advice given to ministers about the nuked blood scandal.

The Mirror revealed in November how dozens of veterans of Britain’s Cold War radiation experiments had blood tests, but have been blocked from seeing the results.

Now one family has been told a politician has made a decision to stop them seeing even the advice he was given about it, because to do so "would affect the smooth running of government".

Cold War hero Terry Gledhill led squadrons of ‘sniff’ planes into the mushroom clouds of five nuclear weapons, with relatives discovering only after his death how badly he was exposed.

Sqn Ldr Terry Gledhill was the first to fly into a series of nuclear clouds at Christmas Island in 1957 and 1958 (Jane O'Connor)

His daughter Jane is fighting for the truth about her dad's unexplained illnesses (BNPS)

The MoD has confirmed it holds evidence from blood tests of Sqn Ldr Gledhill taken in 1958, but his daughter Jane O’Connor’s requests to see it have been refused.

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Now a minister - believed to be Armed Forces and Veterans Minister James Heappey as he is the junior minister with responsibility for the survivors - has blocked publication of the official advice he received.

Jane, 71, of Poole, Dorset, said: “What are they frightened of? There’s clearly something or they wouldn’t go to these lengths to stop me seeing it. It’s political.

“I have a right to see if my dad was irradiated. It doesn’t affect national security. My father loved the RAF and left me a note before he died telling me to find out the truth, and that’s all I want.”

The MoD's response to Jane's request for more information - a minister decided against publishing the advice he'd had about her father's blood tests

Physicists working on Britain’s nuclear bomb tests discussed Sqn Ldr Gledhill’s blood in a top secret memo in 1958, as the Mirror reported in November last year. We obtained a copy of the memo, and it showed seven samples were taken from him during Operation Grapple on Christmas Island, and that he had the same blood damage as a radiotherapy patient.

Such tests, ordered by Whitehall, could provide irrefutable proof of radiation damage, which would be needed for compensation claims. Dozens of veterans who recall having blood taken have been refused access to their results by the Atomic Weapons Establishment, which admitted it held some last year, but now claims not to have any.

Labour's Andy Burnham called it "a criminal cover-up" and said there should be a public inquiry to uncover the truth.

In November, Defence Select Committee chairman Tobias Ellwood was told by junior defence minister Andrew Murrison that "the Atomic Weapons Establishment holds copies of the results of urine radioactivity measurements and blood tests for a small number of individuals".

But yesterday, Murrison told Dr Julian Lewis, the Intelligence and Security Committee chairman, that "AWE do not hold the blood test results for nuclear test veterans". He added its records merely held "a small number of references" to blood tests.

Defence ministers are expected to face questions next week about whether Parliament has been misled.

Junior defence minister Andrew Murrison (Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament ()

After being shown the memo, Jane, whose father died in 2015 after decades of illness, asked the MoD if it held any further information.

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The Air Command Secretariat told her “that information in the scope of your request is held”, but refused to release it on the grounds it was a breach of patient confidentiality. When she appealed, she was told it would “prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs”.

Jane then asked for a copy of the official advice about releasing her father’s blood tests. She has now been told it “falls to a minister” to decide, and he had confirmed that if she saw the official advice, it would affect the smooth running of government.

The MoD refused to confirm which minister had made the decision, but it is believed most likely to be ex-army major Heappey, the MP for Wells in Somerset.

A spokesman said: “To release that information publicly would not allow for full, free and frank conversation by experts which is vital for reaching policy decisions that the taxpayer rightly expects.”

Susie Boniface