Anti-nuclear campaigners have responded to Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry’s plan to compensate to military victims of Britain’s nuclear tests.
Kate Hudson, CND general secretary, said:
“Every aspect of nuclear weapons manifests a complete disregard for human life, and the way British veterans exposed to high doses of radiation have been treated serves as a powerful example.
“Like many service people today, they were ill-equipped, and they knew little about the fatal and life-changing consequences of the nuclear tests they carried out.
“We welcome the Labour Party’s decision to compensate the Christmas Island veterans – it is long overdue. The UK’s catastrophic decision to test the H-bomb on that island in 1957 was the trigger for mass opposition to nuclear weapons here in Britain. Over 60 years on, consecutive governments have refused to grasp the nettle and scrap nuclear weapons. It’s time for the Labour Party to break the impasse.”