Families of infected blood scandal victims call for changes to compensation scheme

Published

2 weeks ago

September 14, 2024

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Families of more than 300 victims of the infected blood scandal are calling on the government to make changes to the compensation scheme, claiming they are being “excluded” from the current guidelines.

Thousands became infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s, with more than 3,000 known to have died so far.

After a public inquiry into the scandal concluded last year, the government announced the creation of the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), an arm’s length body that would manage the payments to victims and their families.

However, speaking to Sky News a member of the Tainted Blood – Siblings and Children group says their concerns about the proposed scheme have not been addressed.

As it currently stands, there are three ways in which the sibling of a victim would be eligible for payment: If, while under the age of 18, they lived in the same household as an infected person for a period of at least two years after the onset of the infection, if they acted as their carer, or if they are entitled to the proceeds from property owned by their infected relative.

These proposals are why people like Richard Newton, who lost his brother Mark to HIV in 1989 feel anger. He says he has written to the IBCA on multiple occasions.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: “We’re being given the silent treatment by the government. We’re being swept under the rug and not listened to.”

Richard was just 11 when Mark died from infected blood products.

He said: “Everything in my life changed, I was severely bullied at school because kids thought I had the lurgy and my parents couldn’t cope. I wasn’t getting any help.”

How the blood scandal happened

More than 30,000 people were infected with deadly viruses while they were receiving NHS care between the 1970s and 1990s.

The UK was not self-sufficient in blood donations in the early 1970s, so the government looked to the US for supplies to meet rising demand.

Batches of Factor VIII – an essential blood clotting protein which haemophiliacs do not produce naturally – started to be imported and used widely to treat the condition.

But much of it had been manufactured with blood collected from prisoners, drug addicts and other high-risk groups who were paid to give blood.

When the plasma was pooled together, it would take just one person carrying a virus to potentially infect an entire batch.

People were infected as donated blood was not tested for HIV until 1986 and hepatitis C until 1991.

The following year, Richard was sectioned under the Mental Health Act at 12.

Now, as an adult, Mark is still affected by childhood trauma more than 30 years on.

He added: “I learned in therapy that I had trust issues, I had trauma bond issues, I had co-dependency issues, I’d been trying my whole life to find a brother.

“The effect on my family and I is catastrophic beyond my comprehension.”

In response to the current state of the scheme, Richard said: “I have absolutely no idea where that information comes from. Does my brother stop becoming my brother in under two years? Does my brother stop becoming my brother because he had a different infection to somebody else?”

Des Collins, senior partner at Collins Solicitors, who represented over 1,500 victims has also expressed concerns about the current scheme.

“What should happen is that someone should sit down and look very carefully at the regulations which are going to come out,” he said.

“We’re told, in the early part of next year, [to] see to what extent they can be adjusted to give more prominence to the position in which Richard finds himself. Now, whether that is going to happen or not, we just don’t know.”

In response, a government spokesperson said: “No amount of compensation can fully address the suffering as a result of this scandal, but we are doing everything possible to deliver life-changing sums to people infected and affected.

“While we can’t comment on individual cases, the compensation scheme does make provisions for siblings in a range of circumstances to apply.

“The compensation scheme, which is established in law, is based on recommendations from the Infected Blood Inquiry, Sir Robert Francis KC, and a group of healthcare and legal experts.”

UK

Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Published

3 hours ago

September 29, 2024

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Robert Jenrick defends £75k donation after criticising Labour in freebies row

Robert Jenrick has defended being handed a £75,000 donation from a company which had received money from a firm registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), despite criticising Labour over the freebies row.

Questions have been raised over the ultimate source of the funds from The Spott Fitness, which gave Mr Jenrick three separate £25,000 donations in July.

As first reported by Tortoise Media, the company received a loan from a firm based in the BVI.

The Tory leadership contender told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that The Spott Fitness “as I understand it… is a fitness company that operates in the UK”, and the donation was “perfectly legal and valid”.

Politics Live: Tory leadership candidates faced questions on Sky News

Mr Jenrick spoke to Sky News alongside the three other rivals to replace Rishi Sunak, as the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham kicks off.

During the interviews, Kemi Badenoch said she is a fighter and if someone takes a swing at her “I will swing back”.

Meanwhile, Tom Tugendhat defended his “posh boy public school background”, saying his military service has given him leadership skills, while former home secretary James Cleverly refused to name any of the previous four Tory prime ministers as being to blame for the party’s general election defeat, saying the public “don’t like infighting”.

Jenrick says donations ‘valid’

Asked about the donations from The Spott Fitness, which have been declared on his MPs’ register of interests, Mr Jenrick said: “As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK.

“It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way that one does with donations.”

Pressed for details on who owns the company and who works for it, the former immigration minister said this would be set out “on Companies House in the normal way” and he has “obviously met people who are involved in the company”.

“What people are criticising Labour for is actually rather different,” he added.

“Labour are being criticised for their rank hypocrisy that they spent years complaining about other political parties and then they’ve chosen to take off donors and cronies and to give passes to Number 10 in response.”

The Labour Party Conference in Liverpool last week was overshadowed by a donation and freebies row, after it emerged Sir Keir Starmer accepted over £100,000 in gifts since 2019.

Questions have been raised in particular over the large amount given by Labour peer and TV executive Lord Alli, who had a pass to Number 10 for a short time in order to attend meetings, the government said.

The Conservatives are now gathering in Birmingham since their worst defeat at the ballot box in history at the July general election.

Jenrick backs ‘cast iron cap’ on migration

Mr Jenrick, currently the frontrunner to replace Mr Sunak, said his party made “serious mistakes” and failed to deliver.

He is pitching himself as a “change” candidate, telling Trevor Phillips he would take the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (EHCR) in order to get the failed £700m Rwanda asylum scheme up and running, and introduce a cap on migration.

He said this would be different from previous commitments to introduce a limit as the cap would be “legally binding… cast in iron”, with the number set “in the tens of thousands or lower”.

Badenoch: ‘If you swing at me I will swing back’

Mr Jenrick faces competition on the right from Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister.

Speaking to Phillips, she defended an Op-ed in The Daily Telegraph in which she claimed there was a rise in the number of migrants coming to the UK who “hate Israel”.

She said she was not referring to all Muslim immigrants “but there are some, those who buy into Islamist ideology, political Islam, they do not like Israel and we need to be able to distinguish between the two”.

The combative shadow housing secretary also insisted she does not go looking for fights when asked about her rows with the likes of Doctor Who star David Tennant, but that she will stand up for herself.

The North West Essex MP said: “I will not stand there and let people punch me. If you swing at me I will swing back but I don’t look for fights.”

She added: “I am something that is just different and unique and that is why I stand out in this contest.”

‘Public don’t like bickering’

All four leadership contenders will make their case at the party conference this week, before another round of voting by MPs will reduce them to the final two, which the party membership will then vote on.

Mr Cleverly, who got the least votes of those remaining in the previous round, said his various cabinet roles in the past few years meant he has spent “more time promoting other people’s ideas” rather than his own – but that shows he is a “team player”.

He declined to name a prime minister who he blamed most for the party’s 2024 defeat but added: “I’ll tell you what the public told me they didn’t like – they didn’t like the constant infighting, they didn’t like the bickering.”

Mr Tugendhat asked the public to judge him on his own record, rather than his public schooling.

“I think that decisions I have made for the last 35 years demonstrate the character that you are looking at,” he said.

“I have chosen consistently to serve our country. I have put myself on the frontline in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

UK

Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

Published

3 hours ago

September 29, 2024

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Boy, eight, dies after being shot at farm in Cumbria

An eight-year-old boy has died after sustaining “serious” injuries to his head and face after being shot at a farm.

Cumbria Police said they are investigating the incident, and said they were called to the farm – in the Warcop area – at around 2.50pm on Saturday.

They said they received “a report that a child had been seriously injured by a firearm at the property” and that police and North West Ambulance Service attended.

“The firearm was secured at the scene by police and an eight-year-old boy was taken to hospital by air ambulance having suffered serious and life-threatening injuries to his head and face,” they said.

“Sadly, the boy has died overnight.”

Cumbria Police added officers arrested a man in his 60s at the scene on suspicion of assault GBH.

“He remains in police custody but is now under arrest on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter,” they said in a statement.

UK

Rosie Duffield ‘never thought’ she would quit Labour – but says Sir Keir Starmer ‘has problem with women’

Published

3 hours ago

September 29, 2024

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Rosie Duffield 'never thought' she would quit Labour - but says Sir Keir Starmer 'has problem with women'

Former Labour MP Rosie Duffield has said she never thought she would leave the party “in a million years” and suggested the prime minister has a “problem with women” after her resignation.

The Canterbury MP, who submitted a scathing resignation letter to Sir Keir Starmer on Saturday, told the BBC she is “desperately sorry” to those in her constituency who voted for Labour.

“It’s not at all where I wanted to be. I never thought in a million years I would leave this party,” she told the broadcaster late last night.

“I’m trying not to get upset… it’s in your soul and your heart, particularly someone like me.

“I’m from a very different background to Keir Starmer. I was a single mum who needed the Labour Party.

“It’s just so profoundly disappointing as a Labour voter and activist and a former recipient of tax credits in a low-paid job to see this is what we’ve become.”

Her resignation letter to the prime minister said she was “so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party”.

In the interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Ms Duffield was asked if she thought Sir Keir “has a problem with women”.

She replied: “I’m afraid I do. I’ve experienced it myself.”

The now-independent MP said she and other female Labour backbenchers refer to “the young men who surround” Sir Keir as “the lads”.

“It’s very clear that the lads are in charge,” she added.

“They’ve now got their Downing Street passes and they’re the same ones briefing against me in the papers and other prominent female MPs.”

Her resignation letter specifically criticised Sir Keir’s treatment of Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott as “deeply shameful” after her long-term suspension.

Reacting to Ms Duffield’s resignation on Sky News, Labour minister Pat McFadden said he “regrets” her decision, but added: “It’s probably not a secret that she’s been unhappy for some time.”

On questions of “sleaze” that relate to Sky News revelations of the prime minister receiving more freebies than any other MP, he said he “wouldn’t characterise it in the way that Rosie has” and that there was “no public money involved”.

He also said he is “not ashamed of the party” and that “government is always tough” in light of Labour’s decision to cut winter fuel payments for thousands of pensioners.

Starmer ‘hasn’t actually explained’

Ms Duffield told Kuenssberg Labour’s three months in power has been “mass hypocrisy” she “can’t be part of”.

“It’s greed,” she said. “Why else would someone on so much more money than most people get free gifts? He can absolutely afford his own clothes – we all can.”

She said Sir Keir “hasn’t answered” or “actually explained” the situation.

In response to the revelations on his donations, he said: “Wherever there are gifts from anyone, I’m going to comply with the rules.

“It’s very important to me that the rules are followed. I’ve always said that. I said that before the election. I reinforced it after the election. And that’s why shortly after the election, my team reached out for advice on what declarations should be made so it’s in accordance with the rules.

“They then sought out for further advice more recently, as a result of which they’ve made the relevant declarations.”