Infected blood inquiry scandal live: PM says 'day of shame for British state' – BBC News

We are pausing our live page for the moment. Thank you for following our coverage of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s report.

• You can read the infected blood inquiry’s key findings here
• For more details on the scandal and when victims will get compensation, you can read analysis from our health reporter Jim Reed, here
• And to read the government’s response to today’s report, click here

This page was written by Cachella Smith, Pia Harold, Gianluca Avagnina, Ruth Comerford, Joe McFadden and Thomas Mackintosh. It was edited by Nathan Williams, James Harness, Emily McGarvey and Paul Gribben.

Thank you for following our coverage of the report into the infected blood scandal. Here’s the latest:

• The report found that the scandal could and should have largely been avoided, with victims being failed “not once but repeatedly” by doctors, the government and other bodies including the NHS
• It found authorities covered up the scandal and exposed victims to unacceptable risks

• Sir Brian Langstaff, who chaired the inquiry, said the scale of the scandal was “horrifying” and the authorities had been too slow to respond to the risks
• Prime Minister Rishi Sunak offered a “whole-hearted apology” to victims. He pledged compensation, whatever it costs, with details to follow tomorrow
• Labour leader Keir Starmer also apologised and said his party would “work with” the prime minister to get compensation sorted swiftly

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Colette Wintle is a haemophiliac who was given a blood transfusion with blood sourced from Louisiana prisons. She was subsequently infected with hepatitis B and C.

When she was discharged from hospital, the doctor told her mother, “your daughter will never be the same again”.

Colette has two cousins in Ireland, also haemophiliacs, who were infected with HIV and hepatitis C. They were paid compensation in 1996.

Colette says: “My cousins were protected. They were paid compensation and allowed to go back for further amounts when their condition deteriorated. They achieved an agreement with the government in Ireland.

“It’s a disgrace that I am having to still sit here and talk about this.”

Bill Wright, the chair of Haemophilia Scotland, told Radio Scotland’s Lunchtime Live earlier that he and his fellow campaigners frankly feel “quite overwhelmed” by today’s report.

“This, I’m afraid, is an earthquake that shakes government to its very foundations,” said Wright, a campaigner who has lived with the consequences of being infected by concentrated blood products for almost 40 years.

He said the report is “earth-shattering” but added that it is not viewed as a triumph because “you can’t bring back the dead.

“We can at least take some comfort today in being vindicated.”

We’ve been bringing you reaction to today’s report from some of the affected families.

Bob Strachan’s father, John – from Aberdeen – was infected in the early 1980s when he contracted HIV during a blood transfusion. He died two weeks before Bob’s ninth birthday.

Strachan tells BBC Radio Scotland’s Drivetime: “It is a damning report.

“It’s definitely very well put together, the evidence is there, you can’t argue with it..

“It was just blatant cover-ups.”

He says it was “ridiculous” what successive governments covered for what he believes was to avoid paying compensation.

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The actions, or inaction, of ministers over nearly half a century are brought into sharp focus in the infected blood report.

Sir Brian Langstaff is not reluctant to name names – former health minsters, cabinet ministers, prime ministers.

Some get more attention than others.

The decision by the then Health Minister Ken Clarke in 1985 not to set up a compensation scheme for those infected with HIV was described as “ill-considered”.

Sir Brian said Clarke’s assertion that the infections had been “unavoidable” had set the tone for the government’s response for many years to come.

And previous Labour – as well as many Conservative – administrations were criticised for resisting a public inquiry.

Tony Blair is quoted as saying, in 1999, that while people with haemophilia felt a sense of injustice, an inquiry wouldn’t provide any greater insight.

But Sir Brian clearly believes that what he has called “the worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS” warranted far more scrutiny – and far sooner.

The NHS England chief executive has also issued an apology to victims of the infected blood scandal on behalf of the health service in England.

Amanda Pritchard says today’s report brings to an end a long fight for answers, adding that it’s clear “tens of thousands of people put their trust in the care they got from the NHS over many years, and they were badly let down.

“I therefore offer my deepest and heartfelt apologies for the role the NHS played in the suffering and the loss of all those infected and affected.

Quote Message: I know that the apologies I can offer now do not begin to do justice to the scale of personal tragedy set out in this report, but we are committed to demonstrating this in our actions as we respond to its recommendations.”

I’ve been speaking to Hazel Busby who travelled from Somerset to be here for the report’s launch.

She says she contracted hepatitis C following a blood transfusion after complications giving birth to her first child.

But for her, this scandal is a double tragedy. She says her cousin, who had haemophilia, contracted Aids as a result of infected blood and died when he was 19.

She listened to Sir Brian Langstaff this afternoon and says she felt uplifted for the first time.

She told me it felt as if the people who’d died as a result of this scandal were in the room too.

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It’s clear the inquiry chair, Sir Brian Langstaff, has had a legal career – and not one in the diplomatic service.

He has denounced successive governments for “institutional defensiveness” over the scandal, which he said had been damaging to the public interest.

This contributed to hiding the truth for decades, he suggested.

It was “indefensible” for ministers to repeat the line that victims had received the best possible care at the time.

This afternoon, Rishi Sunak apologised for the actions of governments over the decades.

And Sir Keir Starmer said “sorry” too – as previous Labour administrations had resisted a full public inquiry.

But Langstaff didn’t just conduct an historic inquiry. His report touches a political raw nerve now.

He said the current government had given the appearance of “working at a sluggish pace” on compensation,

And that a lack of redress had perpetuated the injustice which the surviving victims had suffered.

The government has made interim payments – and the prime minister has made clear that details of a “comprehensive” compensation scheme will be announced tomorrow.

But Langstaff simply doesn’t buy the government line that the scheme could not get under way until his full report was delivered.

The PM told the Commons that the government would compensate victims of the infected blood scandal “whatever it cost”. He also promised to address the problem of “innocent victims having to fight for decades just to be believed”.

As we’ve just heard from the House of Commons, the prime minister has offered a “whole-hearted apology” to the victims of the infected blood scandal.

Let’s quickly recap on the political reaction we have just heard in Parliament:

• Rishi Sunak described the findings of a five-year public inquiry into the scandal as a “day of shame” for the British state
• The PM offered a wholehearted and unequivocal apology
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also apologised to victims of the infected blood scandal
• He said politicians failed to protect victims – adding this “applies to all parties” including Labour
• SNP leader Stephen Flynn praised the “determination and desire” of campaigners to make sure their voices were heard
• Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for a duty of candour on all public officials after he offered apologies on behalf of his political party too

Rishi Sunak apologises for the infection of around 30,000 people with with HIV and hepatitis C, and the failure to address the problem.

He accepts the findings of Sir Brian Langstaff’s inquiry report: “Was there a cover-up? Let me directly quote him – there has been”.

The Commons Speaker has confirmed that there will be a full statement tomorrow when full details of the government’s compensation package will be outlined to MPs.

Dame Diana Johnson, who has fought for compensation for victims, begins by thanking the prime minister for his statement and apology as well as thanking Sir Brian Langstaff for his report.

“Finally the truth,” she tells MPs.

“It’s a vindication of the nearly 50 years of campaigning for justice.”

She pays tribute to all those infected and affected and those who have lost lives.

Two people are dying on average still every week, she adds.

She asks if the PM understands that the failure to act on the second interim report “added another layer of hurt”.

Sunak thanks her for her campaigning and acknowledges that the report sets out decades of failure.

The House of Commons hears from former health secretary Sir Sajid Javid who asks what will be different this time.

The prime minister says Sir Brian Langstaff’s report “is categoric” as Sunak says it highlights an “appalling truth – the NHS failed”.

“It is correct to acknowledge medical practice has evolved,” Sunak tells Parliament as he reiterates the government will study the report’s wide-ranging recommendations to ensure “this never happens again”.

Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, echoes the PM’s apology.

Addressing victims and their families, he says: “We are all truly sorry for the pain you have suffered over decades, because of the failure of politicians and state to keep people safe.”

He asks the PM to back calls for “duty of candour from all public officials”.

Sunak responds by thanking him and saying a full statement will be made tomorrow.

Former prime minister Theresa May was the one who, under political pressure, ordered the public inquiry in 2017.

Addressing MPs, she calls the scandal a “devastating and abject failure of the British state”, saying medical professionals, civil servants and politicians all thought their job was to protect their own reputation rather than look after the public they were there to serve.

She asks whether the PM will “commit himself unashamedly” to ensure all those in government recognise their job is to serve the public and not protect themselves.

The prime minister says there’s no doubt the inquiry came too late and “the consequences of those failures are stark”.

He assures her his government will study every single recommendation “in detail” to make sure that “nothing like this” ever happens again.

We’ve been hearing from SNP leader Stephen Flynn who says the scandal represents the worst of Westminster – decades of deflection, denial and deceit.

Tens of thousands of people affected, he adds, many of whom are no longer alive.

Today, he underlines, is about the victims. He promises on behalf of himself and his colleagues three things.

The first is an apology, the second to say thank you for their “determination and desire” to ensure their voices are heard by all. The third is that the SNP will do everything it can to make sure the government implements the recommendations and to work with the PM and current and future governments to ensure the promise of compensation is kept.

Sunak responds saying that he knows they share a determination to work together.

We are now hearing from other MPs in the House of Commons chamber starting with Conservative Sir Peter Bottomley who has been an MP continually since June 1975.

He asks if the prime minister agrees that the numbers of infections would have been reduced had the truth been learned earlier.

Sunak thanks Sir Peter for his question and his work done through the years.

The PM says Sir Brian Langstaff’s report is detailed and insists the government will respond to it in full.

Starmer outlines his own party’s promises to MPs.

“As well as an apology, I also want to make clear we commit that we will shine a harsh light on the lessons that must be learned to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again.”

He says when you pass through the doors of a hospital it is “a moment of profound vulnerability, you entrust your life into strangers”.

Talking about the sense of betrayal people have felt, Starmer mentions one of his own constituents, Mark Stewart who was given Factor VIII in the 1980s alongside his father and brother.

All three contracted hepatitis C but Mark is still the only one alive . Starmer says the British state ignored them and truth was hidden for decades.