British troops “may have been” used in human radiation experiments, the government has sensationally admitted for the first time. The revelation – following seven decades of denials about what really happened to men of the armed forces ordered to take part in Cold War nuclear weapon trials – came in a leaked letter from the Government Legal Department.
Senior civil servants at the Ministry of Defence instructed lawyers to write to representatives of nuclear veterans. The latest letter states: “Some information may have been recorded by scientists carrying out radiation monitoring rather than medical professionals who would have been more concerned with the health of military personnel.”
It appears to confirm the Mirror’s three-year investigation into how thousands of troops, civilians and indigenous people in Australia and the Pacific were subject to orders for regular blood and urine tests, as well as chest x-rays, to monitor the effects of radiation. The results of the testing are missing from personnel files, with many found on a secret database at the Atomic Weapons Establishment, locked from view among Britain’s nuclear secrets. T
ory grandee Sir John Hayes quoted from the letter in the House of Commons, and has demanded Defence Secretary John Healey come to Parliament to explain.
The news was greeted with tears and anger by veterans and families who have long battled the MoD. Veteran John Morris, who was repeatedly blood-tested and x-rayed while serving in the laundry at Christmas Island and later lost his son to a lung deformity, said: “They’ve snuck it into a legal letter, like the cowards they are, but I want to hear them say it to our faces. For years the MoD pooh-poohed us as eccentrics and trouble-makers, called us conspiracy theorists. We’ve had to fight every step of the way.
“Without the Mirror ’s investigation, and the campaigners, we wouldn’t have had a prayer. Since Labour got into power they’ve blanked us totally. All we want is justice. We’ve been banging our heads against a brick wall for years and finally it feels like the wall is cracking.”
Medics run huge personal legal risks if they harm patients while carrying out any human trials. Government scientists have less chance of being sued, but are bound by professional codes of ethics based on the 1947 Nuremberg Code devised in the wake of Nazi war crimes, forbidding human experimentation without informed consent and medical supervision.
Alan Owen of campaign group LABRATS said: “This is the u-turn we’ve waited 70 years for. It says what our families always knew – the men were guinea pigs for the scientists.
“There was no informed consent, no right to withdraw, no concern for their health. The medics weren’t told what was going on. But the MoD knew, the scientists knew, the officials knew, and they have repeatedly briefed ministers to deny it. That criminal cover-up is now being exposed.
“The Prime Minister must now sit down with us and talk about a solution while there are still enough survivors alive for it to count.”
Lawyer Jason McCue, who is leading a £5bn legal claim by veterans and their families, said: “There is a moral and legal distinction between ethical medical monitoring, which is what should have happened, and treating the men like lab rats to test the effects of these weapons.
“Our servicemen were the only people who could be ordered to stay in an area of fallout for up to a year at a time, ordered to give their blood, and then ordered to sign the Official Secrets Act. We will invite the MoD to mediate a solution so that these national heroes finally get the answers they deserve.”
The revelation comes seven decades late for most of the 40,000 British and Commonwealth troops and their families who spent lifetimes fighting for the truth. Many of the original campaigners have died, and studies show they suffered high rates of cancer, blood disorders, and suicide. Their wives have reported three times the usual rate of miscarriage and their children show 10 times the usual number of birth defects.
Around 4,000 veterans are thought to still be alive worldwide, half in the UK, with an average age of 86 and up to a dozen chronic health conditions each. Keir Starmer met campaigners in Opposition and told them: “Your campaign is our campaign.” The MoD was approached for comment.
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