Politics latest: Infected blood scandal compensation 'could cost £10bn' - as MP calls for police investigation (2024)

… it is now.

And not just for tonight'sPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridge, but another fantasy football season.

It's been another barnstorming campaign for our Sophy, who - not content with her previous dominance of Sky News' own division - has this year come out on top of The Lobby League.

As if you needed any more proof that Sky News is home to the very best political journalists - ours are title winners.

Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge will be back tomorrow - stick with us here for more news and analysis from Westminster through the evening.

Next onPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridge, we are turning to Welsh politics because, as you may have seen on Friday, Plaid Cymru pulled out of its cooperation deal with Welsh Labour, that it is in government (more here).

Well on our panel tonight is the leader of Plaid Cymru,Rhun ap Iowerth, and we are not missing the opportunity to ask him directly about that decision.

He explains that is "came clear to us in recent weeks, since Vaughan Gething became first minister, that there were some issues with attitude of government towards elements of the agreement".

He adds that there is the "context" of the £200,000 donation to Vaughan Gething's leadership campaign that had been convicted of environmental offences and had apparent ties to the Welsh government.

He says there is an "issue of perception, an issue of judgment", which was "becoming a distraction".

The leader insists that Plaid Cymru was "very serious" about the cooperation agreement, but says he no longer felt it was working for his party, and has "no doubt" it was the right decision.

More broadly, he says Welsh Labour has "failed" to deliver, and makes the case for "a change" and for his party to be given a chance at leadership.

As you will have seen over the last 24 hours, Iran's president was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday afternoon, and that is what we are discussing now onPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridge.

Reaction has been coming in from around the world - and it has been mixed.

While many countries have been diplomatic, others have been less so - Ebrahim Raisi was, after all, known as the "Butcher of Tehran".

In that context, UK security minister Tom Tugendhat has said he "will not mourn" the Iranian president.

His comments were a response to president of the European Council Charles Michel who said the EU expressed "its sincere condolences" for the death of Ebrahim Raisi.

Follow updates and reaction to Raisi's death in our live coverage here:

Next onPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridge, we are turning to the cost of the compensation that the government has pledged to deliver.

Our political correspondent Darren McCaffreysays the PM's apology in the Commons appeared to have come "clearly from a position of heartfelt pain, almost, at the trauma that thousands of people have gone through".

But what sticks out to him is the scale of this, saying the scandal dates back to the mid-1970s.

"We're talking about generations of politicians" who failed to address this.

The compensation "could be up to £10bn", but he says that many victims are "complaining that this process even going forward could take a long time", with interim rather than final payments set to be made first.

We are now getting reaction from our panel for this evening to the infected blood scandal and the report that lays bare the failings of the state at every level.

Rhun ap Iowerth, leader of Plaid Cymru, says he first encountered the contaminated blood scandal through meeting constituents affected by it.

"It was my real honour today to be there and listen to [inquiry chair] Sir Brian Langstaff's words - a man of intense empathy.

"It was very moving to be there, and to be there with a thousand plus people who have been living this and fighting this for decades."

He repeats the PM's words that this is "a day of shame".

'Really serious questions'

Mercy Muroki, former government advisor to minister Kemi Badenoch, says, as a parent, the stories involving children are the hardest to hear.

"You just can't listen to those sorts of stories without your heart breaking, and it really does make you wonder how it was allowed to go on for so long."

She goes on to say that it has "raised really serious questions", and it's not just about compensation for the victims, but about "accountability".

Rhun ap Iowerthsays "sorry" is "an easy word to say", but "we've seen today how intensely difficult it is for politicians or the establishment to put their hands up".

It was clear over decades that "something has gone desperately wrong", he says.

Mercy Murokisays trust needs to be restored in our institutions.

Next with Labour MP and campaigner for justice for infected blood victims, Dame Diana Johnson, we ask what needs to happen now.

She says we are expecting a statement from the government tomorrow setting out details of the compensation scheme.

But she hits out at ministers for not properly responding to the inquiry's interim report last April that said the compensation scheme should have been set up and started making payments last year.

She also calls for parents who have lost children and children who have lost parents to receive compensation, saying they "never received a penny".

"We forced them in parliament to actually set up the compensation body in December because we were so annoyed that they weren't taking the action that Sir Brian [Langstaff, inquiry chair] had recommended.

"But we still don't have that body up and running. It's not paid any money out yet.

"So that will be the key ask - when will this be up? When will it be running? And when will people start to receive money?"

Asked why compensation has taken so long, Dame Diana says there are "real issues about the cost because we are talking about £10bn now because it's taken so long to get to this point".

She also thinks the Treasury was probably reluctant to have a public inquiry due to the cost, and a "culture" about "institutions protecting themselves rather than being open and transparent".

"There are real parallels here with Hillsborough, with the Windrush scandal, with the Horizon (Post Office) scandal," she said.

Dame Diana Johnson tellsPolitics Hub With Sophy Ridgethat the covering-up of the infected blood scandal over decades is "the most upsetting thing".

"There's been delay and there's been denial for far too long. And the key thing about today is we've got the truth," she said.

"It is just staggering that in our country, where we believe that the NHS is a body that does good and that looks after its patients, did something so terrible."

'Doctors played God with children's lives'

The senior Labour MP went on to say there are "real questions about whether there's some criminal activity in this, and whether the police and the CPS need to look at what happened".

She said we should consider that, pointing to boys being experimented on in a boarding school, which is "a criminal offence".

"Doctors were playing God with children's lives," she added.

The first guest on tonight's edition ofPolitics Hub With Sophy RidgeisDame Diana Johnson, Labour MP, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee and ardent campaigner for justice for those affected by the infected blood scandal.

We asked first for her reaction to the apology from the chief executive of NHS England that was published in the last 20 minutes (see post at 18.53).

She welcomes the apology, and quotes the chair of the public inquiry who said we need to acknowledge what happened, apologise for it, and then "we need to see action from the government to ensure that these people whose lives have been wrecked, whose families have wrecked, that they get the compensation that they need".

Dame Diana said the NHS "absolutely" needs to face its failures, saying there were failings at all levels.

The infected blood scandal was "not an accident" - and its failures lie with "successive governments, the NHS, and blood services", a public inquiry has found.

From the 1970s, 30,000 people were "knowingly" infected with either HIV or Hepatitis C because "those in authority did not put patient safety first", the inquiry's report said. Around 3,000 people died.

The response of the government and NHS has "compounded" victims' suffering, said inquiry chair Sir Brian Langstaff.

This included the "deliberate destruction of some documents" by Department of Health workers, in what Sir Brian described as a "pervasive cover-up" and "downright deception".

"It could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided. And I report that it should have been," he said, adding the "scale of what happened is horrifying" for victims and their families.

Read more about the report and its findings in depth from our news reporter Lara Keay here:

I want to start the programme tonight with a name: Colin John Smith.

He was named after his dad.

Colin was born in Newport in 1982, so he would be around the same age as me if he was still alive.

But Colin was a victim of the infected blood scandal, and he died when he was just seven years old.

It feels really important that we start tonight's programme with Colin, because there will be lots of time for the politics, but it's Colin's story I can't get out of my head.

Colin had haemophilia, and his treatment involved a product called Factor 8.

But Factor 8 was made in America using blood taken from prisoners and drug addicts.

They didn't tell that to Colin's parents at the time. They thought they were doing the best they could for their little boy.

But that treatment infected Colin with HIV.

He became very ill. He lost weight. His parents couldn't even pick him up without it hurting him. They tried to, though, using a sheepskin rug.

When he asked for a bike, they bought one for him. He couldn't ride it, of course. He never even sat on it. But his friends all had bikes, so Colin had one too.

And there was a lot of stigma around AIDS at that time.

Other parents protested when it was time for Colin to start school, because they didn't want a boy with AIDS in the classroom.

Someone wrote "AIDS dead" in six-foot letters on their house. There were phone calls in the middle of the night. "They were the worst," according to Colin's parents.

When he died, he was seven years old, and he weighed just 13 pounds.

His parents have a suitcase of his things. A sky blue blanket. A snow globe that he loved. And lots and lots of his artwork, because he loved to draw and paint.

So I want to start the programme with the name Colin John Smith, because that's the name his parents want people to remember.

Read more about Colin and his family here.