WORCESTER’S MP Robin Walker has paid tribute to former Mayor Dr David Tibbutt for his work in shining a light on the city’s victims of the NHS infected blood scandal
Speaking in the week he defied his party to back a bid to speed up compensation for victims, Mr Walker said any further delays to those affected was ‘not acceptable’.
The vote was passed by 246 votes to 242 after 22 Conservatives rebelled in Monday’s (December 4) vote including Mr Walker, delivering the Prime Minister his first Commons defeat.
Ministers will now have to set up a body to run the scheme within three months of a new bill becoming law.
The government has said there is a moral case for compensating victims of the scandal and has made the first interim payments of £100,000 each to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners.
However, it said it wanted to wait for the infected blood inquiry to conclude before setting up a full scheme.
In an attempt to speed up efforts, Labour’s Dame Diana Johnson – who leads the All-Party Parliamentary group on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood – put forward the amendment.
A public inquiry into the scandal which saw some 5,000 British haemophiliac patients – whose blood cannot clot – infected with HIV, Hepatitis C, or both, began in 2019, chaired by Sir Brian Langstaff.
Victims were given contaminated blood products from prisons in America by the NHS between 1972 and 1985 and around 4,800 people originally infected with Hepatitis C while 1,243 of those were also infected with HIV, the virus which leads to AIDS.
More than 2,000 people have since died. Of the HIV group, only around 250 are still alive, representing an 80 per cent death rate for that group.
Earlier this year Sir Brian called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately. He also said it should be widened to include orphaned children and parents who lost children.
“Dame Diana Johnson rightly made the point that victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal were compensated before the final inquiry concluded,” Mr Walker said.
“In a House of Commons debate in June I used the example of Northern Ireland, where legislation to compensate victims of historical institutional abuse, passed through the House of Commons chamber in one day, demonstrating that arguments about the complexity of the issues or procedural reasons for delay did not hold water.
“I am grateful to my friend and former councillor Dr David Tibbutt for allowing me to share the stories of family who have suffered terrible losses as a result of this scandal.
“I now hope not only the husbands, wives and partners of those who lost their lives will have the support and help they need but also the children who lost parents and parents who lost a child.
”I never go against the whip lightly but in this case I did feel it was necessary and I am glad the legislation is now in place to address this longstanding injustice.
“I am proud my party put in place the inquiry and has provided the first payments to victims but I also felt it was right to work cross party in order to move this forward as swiftly as possible.”
