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Rishi Sunak suffered his first House of Commons defeat as UK prime minister on Monday, as MPs voted to accelerate plans to compensate victims in a long-running scandal over contaminated blood.
A total of 23 Conservative MPs voted for a Labour backbencher’s amendment to the government’s victims and prisoners bill to speed up payouts, while dozens more were absent or abstained.
The amendment was approved in the Commons by 246 votes to 242, in a move that should force ministers to set up a compensation scheme next year for the victims and families of those infected with transfusions of contaminated blood.
Tory whips had ordered Conservative MPs to vote against the amendment. Labour whips told their MPs to back it.
Tens of thousands of people, many suffering from haemophilia, a rare blood disorder, were infected with HIV and hepatitis C in the 1970s and 1980s via tainted blood.
Sir Brian Langstaff, chair of a public inquiry into the matter, urged the government in April to establish an arms-length body to pay compensation to victims. He said the government should move swiftly because thousands had already died.
Dame Diana Johnson, the Labour MP who tabled the amendment, said the Commons vote was an “important step forward” for victims. Earlier, she urged MPs to establish a compensation body before the inquiry’s delayed final report is published in March 2024.
Ministers have accepted the “moral case” for compensating families and victims, but are concerned about the cost. Senior government officials previously told the Financial Times the total could reach anywhere between £5bn and £10bn, far higher than the £1bn set aside for postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal.
About 1,250 people are thought to have contracted HIV, of whom three-quarters had died by 2020, according to the inquiry. A further 26,800 became seriously ill, while between 2,400 and 5,000 people were infected with hepatitis C.
The public inquiry was announced in 2017 by Theresa May, prime minister at the time. Infected individuals and bereaved partners have so far each received an interim payment of £100,000, leading to payouts of about £400mn.
Edward Argar, prisons minister, speaking to MPs before the vote on Monday, said the government was planning to bring forward its own amendment to the victims and prisoners bill in the House of Lords to deliver a compensation body in line with Johnson’s proposal.
Prior to the vote, the Cabinet Office also said: “It would not be right to pre-empt the findings of the final report into infected blood, which is due in March 2024. It is right that these findings are published and considered before any legislation is brought forward including any compensation scheme.”
Afterwards, the Cabinet Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Johnson’s amendment did not include a particular figure for compensation, and party insiders said the opposition’s support for her proposal did not equate to a spending commitment.