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For nearly 50 years campaigners have fought for recognition that a pregnancy test drug called Primodos, given to them by their GPs, damaged babies in the womb.  

Earlier this year High Court Judge Mrs Justice Yip ruled there was insufficient new evidence to support their claim, and the claimants did not have the funds nor legal representation to take their challenge further, after their solicitors dropped the case.

The case was struck out, leaving the claimants potentially liable for costs.

Now they have been sent a letter by lawyers representing the Department Of Health and drug manufacturer Bayer saying that, unless they commit to never making another claim, they will have to pay the legal bills of the lawyers used to block their joint action.

Marie Lyon, from the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests, told Sky News: “It constitutes bullying and intimidation.

“They want us to sign a form to say we will never ever initiate any legal action in the future no matter what kind of evidence emerges.

“Otherwise, they will slap that £10m plus on our families. I am absolutely disgusted with our government – not only did they damage us initially, but now they are actually asking us to pay for it.”

The drug was given out by GPs to pregnant women in the 1960s and 70s but withdrawn from the market in 1978 after concerns were raised in the scientific community about an association between the drug and malformations.

However, the first attempted legal challenge against the manufacturers in 1982 failed.

In 2017, an Expert Working Group of the UK’s Commission on Human Medicines published a report concluding that the available scientific data did not support the existence of a causal relationship between the use of hormones in pregnancy and an increased incidence of congenital anomalies in babies.

However, the then prime minister, Theresa May felt the body of the report also contained evidence that there might be an association.

She commissioned an independent review, led by Baroness Cumberlege, not just to look at the drug but also the way in which it was regulated in the UK.

The findings of that report, published in July 2020, were highly critical of the regulatory system – and suggested Primodos should have been withdrawn from the UK market 10 years earlier than it was.

It found Hormone Pregnancy Tests caused “avoidable harm” and said the government should apologise and set up a system of redress.

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May 2023: Primodos families lose legal bid

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The government did apologise, but shortly after, the Department Of Health hired lawyers, sided with the German manufacturer, and ensured that a new the legal claim from families was struck out of the courts.

All this led to a debate in Parliament on Thursday where Mrs May told the House, that mothers wrongly felt guilty about taking the drug and damaging their babies.

She said: “This drug was given to them by their GPs, and I hope the minister will stand up this afternoon and say very clearly the women who took Primodos, whose children suffered, were at no fault whatsoever, and should not feel guilty at all. The fault lay with the NHS.”

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey said: “This is in my view potentially one of the biggest cover-ups of a pharmaceutical outrage the world has ever seen.”

Jacob Rees-Mogg pointed to findings from a previous Sky News investigation saying: “This drug was used in South Korea, and in Germany, as an abortifacient.

“It was used to procure abortions. Well, what is a drug that will do that doing to a baby?”

Until now the government has said it has not been able to discuss issues of redress due to the legal claim against it.

The Minister for Women’s Health Maria Caulfield has offered to meet the families and in regard to the letter about legal costs said: “The letter that’s gone out to those taking part in court cases – I will look at that – because I don’t want to be in a position where people feel they cannot get justice simply because they cannot afford to do so.”

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Primodos: A Bitter Pill

The SNP’s Hannah Bardell blamed the failed legal action on the solicitors who pulled out of representing the claimants.

“They’ve been done over – and I am going to use my parliamentary privilege here – by a company called Pogust Goodhead,” she said.

“Now they approached the Primodos campaign, they approached them to take over the case, they then got cold feet and decided to drop the claimants and the victims when they didn’t fancy their chances of winning.

“Not only to compound that, they went on to withhold the documents that constituents like mine, Wilma Ord, had presented to them and given to them to pursue the case.

“That prevented the campaign from being able to find other legal representation and fundamentally has meant that the campaign was unsuccessful in court. That in my view is a hostile and odious move by any legal firm.”

When Sky News previously approached the legal firm with this allegation in April this year, Pogust Goodhead said: “We refute the suggestion that we are withholding information to damage this case.

“We are aware that the claimants have been provided with 1,256 pages of legal documents containing information which should assist with their search for legal representation and funding.

“We have not been notified that there is another law firm on the court record as acting for any of the individuals we represented. We are bound by a duty of confidentiality and must adhere to strict rules in relation to disclosure of any former client’s documentation.

“We poured extensive resources into this case because we care deeply about the injustice and harm caused to any victim of wrongdoing that has resulted in injury.”

The manufacturer Schering, now owned by Bayer, has always denied that their drug caused harm to babies in the womb and point to the findings of the 2017 Expert Working Group report.

It added: “Since the discontinuation of the legal action in 1982, Bayer maintains that no significant new scientific knowledge has been produced which would call into question the validity of the previous assessment of there being no link between the occurrence of such congenital anomalies.”

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Emergency bill to protect British Steel becomes law

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Emergency bill to protect British Steel becomes law

An emergency bill to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces has become law.

The urgent legislation gives ministers the power to instruct British Steel to keep the plant open.

The bill was rushed through the House of Commons and House of Lords in one day, with MPs and peers being recalled from recess to take part in a Saturday sitting for the first time in over 40 years.

Emergency bill becomes law – follow the latest reaction here

British Steel's Scunthorpe plant
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An emergency bill to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces has passed. Pic: Reuters

After passing through both houses of parliament, the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill was granted royal assent by the King.

The bill gives the government the power to take control of British Steel – or any other steel asset – “using force if necessary”, order materials for steelmaking and instruct that workers be paid. It also authorises a jail sentence of up to two years for anyone breaching this law.

Sir Keir Starmer hailed the legislation for “turning the page on a decade of decline”, adding “all options are on the table to secure the future of the industry”.

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What is the future of British Steel?

It will mean the steel plant in Scunthorpe will continue to operate as the government decides on a long-term strategy, and steelmaking in the UK more broadly.

Officials from the Department for Business and Trade arrived at the site before the bill had even passed, Sky News understands.

Earlier, staff from the plant’s ousted Chinese owners Jingye were denied access, with police called over a “suspected breach of peace” – though officers found “no concerns”.

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The role of steel in the UK economy

Ministers took the unusual step of recalling parliament from its recess to sit on Saturday after negotiations with Jingye appeared to break down.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the measures within the bill were “proportionate and necessary” to keep the Scunthorpe blast furnaces open and protect both the UK’s primary steelmaking capacity and the 3,500 jobs involved.

The emergency legislation stops short of full nationalisation of British Steel, but Mr Reynolds told MPs that public ownership remained the “likely option” for the future.

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During the debate, several Conservative MPs, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice and the Liberal Democrats’ deputy leader Daisy Cooper all spoke in favour of nationalisation.

MPs had broken up for the Easter holidays on Tuesday and had not been due to return until Tuesday 22 April.

The business secretary accused Jingye of failing to negotiate “in good faith” after it decided to stop buying enough raw materials to keep the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe going.

But the Conservatives said the government should have acted sooner, with shadow leader of the house Alex Burghart accusing ministers of making “a total pig’s breakfast” of the situation regarding British Steel.

The government was also criticised for acting to save the Scunthorpe plant but not taking the same action when the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot were threatened with closure.

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Major incident declared after gas explosion causes house collapse in Nottinghamshire

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Major incident declared after gas explosion causes house collapse in Nottinghamshire

A major incident has been declared in Nottinghamshire after a gas explosion caused a house to collapse.

There is still a “substantial emergency service presence” in place after the explosion in John Street, Worksop just after 7.30pm on Saturday.

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) declared it a “major incident” and said “multiple houses in and around John Street have been evacuated”. Nearby Crown Place Community Centre has been opened as a “place of safety”, the service said. Around 20 people have sought refuge there, Sky News camera operator James Evans-Jones said from the scene.

Videos posted on social media showed the front of a terraced house blown out with the roof collapsed, while neighbouring houses had their windows damaged.

NFRS said in a statement late on Saturday: “This has now been declared a major incident, and we are likely to be on scene throughout the night and even into Sunday morning.”

The fire service said it was called to the scene at 7.39pm.

The back of the property where the explosion happened in Worksop. Pic: YappApp
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The back of the property where the explosion happened in Worksop. Pic: YappApp

Pic: YappApp
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Pic: YappApp

“This is a gas explosion involving a house that has been significantly damaged,” the service said in a previous statement.

More on Nottinghamshire

One person posted on Facebook that they heard “a terrific bang, like a very loud firework” as they turned into Gladstone Street from Gateford Road.

“I thought the back end had blown off my car,” they said. “A house in John Street has had, presumably, a gas explosion!”

Emergency services at the scene on Saturday. Pic: YappApp
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Emergency services at the scene on Saturday. Pic: YappApp

NFRS said it was also called to a separate incident shortly afterwards but does not believe the two are connected.

Ten fire engines were sent to the scene of the industrial fire in nearby Holgate Road in The Meadows, Nottingham.

“The building has been severely damaged but there are no reports of any injuries,” NFRS said.

Having been called to the incident at 8.11pm, NFRS said at around 10.30pm that it was scaling its response down with the flames “now under control”.

NFRS’s group manager Leigh Holmes said from the scene just after 11pm: “We will begin to relax the cordon in the next hour as we continue to scale down this incident.”

A damaged building at The Meadows in Nottingham. Pic: NFRS
Image:
A damaged building at The Meadows in Nottingham. Pic: NFRS

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A sticking plaster, not a solution: What next for British Steel?

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A sticking plaster, not a solution: What next for British Steel?

Sir Keir Starmer was flying the flag for domestic steel production on Saturday as his government passed emergency legislation to give itself extraordinary powers to intervene in the running of the steel works in Scunthorpe and elsewhere.

He wants voters to notice that his intervention-friendly government has stepped in to save virgin steel production which was days away from dying out for good because of what ministers call the bad faith behaviour of Chinese owners.

The politics and optics of Saturday’s intervention seem relatively simple. What happens next, however, is not.

Follow live updates: Emergency law to keep British steel plant open

Even before the emergency bill had made its way through parliament, officials had turned up at British Steel in Scunthorpe.

There’s a nervousness about what happens next. As one person close to the talks told me, keeping the blast furnaces alive is far from a foregone conclusion and there are difficult times to come.

More on Sir Keir Starmer

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Emergency steel bill receives King’s approval

“We’re in for a very hard few days and week while government and UK management secure and ensure the vital loads of raw materials needed,” said a source.

“You can’t just do next day delivery on Amazon. Until this is in the blast furnaces keeping them going this won’t be a job done.”

It stands to reason the government will pull out all the stops and the furnace for now will be kept alive, whatever the cost, because the political cost of failure at this point is too high.

Future not secure

But the medium term prospects for virgin British steel are far from secure.

The blast furnaces being saved only have a few years life at best – but it remains unclear who will fund a transition to the new-style electric blast furnaces.

Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said: “The action I seek to take today is not a magic wand or a panacea.

“The state cannot fund the long term transformation of British Steel itself, nor would it want to do so.”

Nor would he say that steel production is an overriding national security issue, effectively guaranteeing future production. The wiggle room will be noted in Scunthorpe and beyond.

The government has provided a sticking plaster not a solution.

But this is about so much more than what’s going on in Lincolnshire, this is about Britain’s place in the world – and its resilience.

SIR KEIR STARMER SCINTSHORPE

Is dependence on China inevitable?

Can our domestic steel industry survive if Trump continues to impose 25% tariffs on steel going from the UK to the US?

Can we make our own weapons for years to come – as part of Mr Starmer‘s newfound commitment to spend 3% of GDP on defence – without British steel?

Is the eventual dependence on Chinese steel an inevitability?

Yet one of the fascinating features of Saturday’s debate was the most strident attack on a Chinese entity by a minister – the toughest assault since Mr Starmer’s government entered office.

Mr Reynolds said: “Over the last few days, it became clear that the intention of Jingye was to refuse to purchase sufficient raw materials to keep the blast furnaces running.

“In fact, their intention was to cancel and refuse to pay for existing orders. The company would therefore have irrevocably and unilaterally closed down primary steelmaking at British Steel.

“Their intention has been to keep the downstream mills, which colleagues will know are fundamental to our construction steel industry, and supply them from China rather than from Scunthorpe.”

This attack – at a time when ministers (most recently Ed Miliband) have been heading to Beijing to repair relations.

However, the accusation that a Chinese entity has been acting in bad faith in order to effectively scupper domestic steel production is a serious charge.

It also comes before we find out whether Donald Trump is going to make it harder for allies to trade with China.

The government has succeeded in protecting the domestic manufacturer of virgin steel for the short term.

But what happens in the long term, and where we might get it from, remains as murky today as it did before.

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