Labour has backed the creation of a new body to administer billions of pounds in compensation to victims of the contaminated blood scandal.
In a significant victory for The Sunday Times, which has waged a decades-long campaign for justice, Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has written to Jeremy Hunt confirming her party’s support for the new arm’s-length body.
The decision will leave Rishi Sunak facing defeat on Monday, with Tory rebels set to join forces with the opposition to force his government’s hand. More than 30 Conservative MPs have signed a backbench amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which seeks to establish the organisation within the next three months. It would be chaired by a High Court judge and oversee the payment of compensation to victims and their families, which the Treasury estimates could cost between £5 billion and £22 billion.
Treasury insiders say the range of the compensation payouts is down to the assumptions that could be made about the numbers of people affected and who the government ultimately decides is eligible.
About 30,000 people in Britain are believed to have contracted hepatitis C and HIV from contaminated blood in the 1970s and 1980s, including about 5,000 haemophiliacs. The government’s priority is to compensate the “infected who are alive”, followed by those who have already died. However, there is a larger group known as the “affected”, which includes loved ones of victims, who are also expected to be compensated.
If the total figure landed upon is at the upper end of the scale, it would make the country’s finances more precarious, although at last month’s autumn statement the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) confirmed that the government’s fiscal headroom was £13 billion. This is calculated against the government’s fiscal rule of reducing debt as a share of the economy, which Reeves has also committed to doing if Labour wins the next general election.
This suggests that Labour would either face severely reducing its headroom if it agreed compensation at the lower end of the scale, or finding savings from either spending cuts, tax rises, or additional borrowing at the higher end. Reeves has said she will not raise taxes.
Labour had been expected to abstain from Monday’s vote amid fears that supporting the amendment, tabled by the MP Dame Diana Johnson, would amount to an unfunded spending commitment. However, this weekend Reeves, who has already been forced to scale back plans to spend £28 billion a year on green investment because of the worsening state of the economy, reversed her party’s position.
“The infected blood scandal is one of the most appalling tragedies in our country’s recent history, she wrote to the chancellor. “This week we have the opportunity to work together to begin to bring justice for the victims … that is why I am writing to inform you that the Labour Party will be supporting New Clause 27, tabled by my colleague and friend Dame Diana Johnson, to establish a body to administer the compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal. This is an important moment to show that the Commons supports the principle of delivering a compensation scheme and achieving justice.”
Hunt previously said in his evidence to the infected blood inquiry that “justice delayed is justice denied”, adding: “That’s why we have a responsibility to work as fast as we possibly can to resolve this.”
However, the government has been accused of dragging its feet over the issue, despite agreeing to pay £600,000 to every postmaster wrongfully convicted of fraud in the Post Office Horizon scandal.
The blood scandal has been described as the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS. People were infected after being given factor VIII blood products contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s.
It is estimated that 1,350 people were infected with HIV, of whom more than 1,000 had died by the end of 2019. About 26,800 people are estimated to have contracted hepatitis C, of whom 1,820 had died from causes related to the disease by 2019.
The government has already made interim payments of about £400 million to people infected, and bereaved partners. However, Sir Brian Langstaff, a former judge and chairman of the infected blood inquiry, said these payments should be extended to “recognise deaths to date unrecognised”, including the parents and children who suffered bereavements as a result of the contaminated blood scandal.
He also demanded that an arms-length body should be set up this year to compensate the victims of the scandal who are living on “borrowed time”.
Johnson said: “With one person dying on average every four days from this scandal, time is of the essence. One hundred and forty-six MPs from ten parties support my amendments to implement the compensation recommendations from the infected blood inquiry, published in April.
“The government have already accepted the ‘moral case’ for compensation to be paid, so now is the time for action — not further delay. There is no reason for the government not to support the amendments.”
• Father watched both sons die of Aids from infected blood
Sarah Dorricott, whose father, Mike, died in 2015 from liver cancer linked to the hepatitis C he contracted through infected blood, has urged Hunt to keep his promise made to her family almost ten years ago.
She said: “Mike was invited to talk with Hunt to discuss what would be a fair and final settlement for the victims and their families. Having been told his constituent was dying from terminal cancer, Hunt promised him he would ‘sort this out’.
“As a family, we urge him to please honour the promises he made and put his words into action.”
A spokeswoman for Tainted Blood, the campaign group which represents more than 1,700 infected and affected victims, said it was “extremely pleased” that Labour would back the amendment.
A government spokeswoman said: “We are deeply sympathetic to the strength of feeling on this and understand the need for action. However, it would not be right to pre-empt the findings of the final report into infected blood, which is due in March 2024. It is right that these findings are published and considered before any legislation is brought forward, including any compensation scheme.”
