A former defence minister has admitted misleading parliament over the existence of crucial medical records relating to nuclear bomb test veterans.
Tobias Ellwood has said he unwittingly gave MPs incorrect information in 2018 when he told them he had been unable to locate information on veterans’ blood tests after being given incorrect information by officials at the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Veterans have been fighting for years to see the records as many look to prove that years of serious illnesses such as cancer were linked to their experiences testing nuclear weapons. Ellwood’s admission will increase pressure on the MoD to explain whether its officials have helped prevent those veterans get justice.
In a piece for the Guardian, Ellwood says: “In December 2018, as defence minister, I inadvertently misled parliament.
“Asked whether blood samples had been taken from service personnel for radiological monitoring during the nuclear bomb tests, I relayed the line provided to me by the Ministry of Defence: it was ‘unable to locate any information’ suggesting blood samples had been taken for radiological monitoring at the tests.
“I now know the reality was very different – these samples were taken across the armed services branches. But those veterans seeking compensation for serious illnesses developed after radiation exposure have been unable to access them.”
He added: “This is among the greatest scandals in Britain, and it must be addressed.”
An MoD spokesperson said: “This government commissioned and completed an extensive records discovery exercise, examining tens of thousands of documents to address long-standing questions from veterans about blood and urine testing policies during the nuclear testing programme.
“The findings have now been published in full, following regular engagement between ministers, nuclear test veterans and community groups throughout the process.”
Between 1952 and 1967, about 22,000 British military personnel took part in 45 large-scale nuclear weapons tests in Australia and the South Pacific. Some pilots flew through mushroom clouds, some troops crawled through fallout and many witnessed the first test wearing little more than short-sleeved shirts and shorts.
Large numbers later suffered blood disorders and cancers, which they believed were caused by exposure to radioactive fallout. Most were denied pensions because of their ill health.
Unlike other nuclear-armed countries such as France, the US and the Soviet Union, the UK has never compensated those involved in testing atomic bombs.
The case has been compared with the infected blood scandal, which saw more than 30,000 people contract HIV and Hepatitis C in the the 1970s and early 1990s after being given contaminated blood and blood products.
The prime minister, Andy Burnham, has previously said he was misled by officials when he claimed as health secretary in 2009 that there was no evidence that people were knowingly given contaminated blood. His claims echo those being made today by Ellwood.
Burnham has also been a vocal supporter of the nuclear test veterans in recent years.
As Greater Manchester mayor in 2022, Burnham said: “If the state was conducting medical tests upon servicemen and not informing them when they found serious irregularity, that is at least misconduct in public office, and more serious, perhaps gross negligence manslaughter, in respect of people who died as a result.
“Crimes have been committed.”
The prime minister is now coming under pressure to begin an inquiry and allocate government money for compensation to the victims.
One of the major problems with securing compensation so far has been the lack of medical evidence linking veterans’ health problems to their experiences helping with nuclear tests.
The government long maintained that it did not hold any such medical records – a claim that was proved incorrect in 2022 when the journalist Susie Boniface revealed the existence of a database of 28,000 documents known as Merlin.
That database had been put together in response to a 2007 lawsuit by 1,000 British test veterans and their families, but the information was classified.
Ellwood says he did not find out about the existence of this database until 2022, when details began to emerge in the press.
He writes in his piece: “If this information existed within the MoD, why had ministers not been given the full picture?”
