Nuclear test veterans to get £50,000 payout under Labour plans

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Tornberry said each of the estimated 1,500 former service personnel will receive the lump-sum payout, in a move which could cost around £75 million.

Around 20,000 British soldiers witnessed atomic tests including Operation Grapple Y in 1958, which was 112 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Many of them went on to experience serious health problems as a result.

Announcing the pledge as part of Labour's election manifesto, Ms Thornberry said the veterans were owed a "huge debt".

"The men from who from 1950s onwards who were exposed to terrible levels of radiation when overseeing Britain’s nuclear tests and who have not just seen their own health damaged as a result, but most painfully their children and their grandchildren too," she said.

"Both the US and France have given large lump-sum payments to some of their own nuclear test veterans to help them cope with their medical problems.

"We will give a £50,000 lump sum payment to every surviving test veteran to help them and their families cope with their medical problems and give them the security and comfort they deserve in their old age."

It follows a campaign from West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader, who also wants nuclear test veterans to be honoured with a medal.

He said: “This provides a long overdue recognition. It’s now time for the other major parties to follow Labour’s lead. It's the least we can do to repay the vets' service to our country.”

Anti-nuclear campaigners have backed Labour's pledge.

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."

Britain carried out nuclear explosions in the US, Australia and South Pacific in the 1950s, with servicemen ordered to watch blasts, sail and crawl through radioactive fallout to test its effects and fly through mushroom clouds on sampling missions.

Many would later die from cancers and rare blood disorders, while their descendants suffered a rate of birth defects far higher than normal.