Transcripts For GBN Good 20240703

Been infected. Yes, im very interested to speak, to speak to her. She was a young and plucky reporter who got wind of this, caught wind of this , and then went into this, and then went into investigation mode. And im very , very interested to hear whether she suffered quite a bit of pushback from within the medical community, whether she suffered some pushback politically , even, or from politically, even, or from fellow journalists, even because this was a huge scandal, a huge story that she decided to break in the mail on sunday. Well be talking to her about exactly what that was like at the time, and what she hopes will come out of this inquiry. 1230 its going to drop. Well have the report. Well know how much compensation , crucially, is going to be offered, but not just the compensation for those that have been affected. For those that have been in affected and affected by this scandal, lasting decades, ripping through the nhs, but also who knew what and when, what decisions were made by senior medical clinicians, by senior medical clinicians, by senior politicians, even perhaps was there a cover up . Will that have been established . Thats one of the big, big revelations that were going to learn in less than half an hours time. Yes. And please do get in touch if you, have been affected in one way or another by this scandal, if you know someone, a family member, a friend, a co worker, a colleague, whatever , let us know your story. Please do get in touch gb views gbnews. For. Com is the is the address. Uk gbnews. For. Com is the is the address. Uk is the address. But we want you to get in touch on gbnews. Com win your say exactly. So thats thats two different addresses. If you want to talk about anything in the show. The usual way. Gbnews. Com yoursay. But if you have a specific story about this, about this infected blood scandal, if its affected, if its affected you in some way , its affected you in some way, then its gb news gbviews gbnews. Uk two different addresses. Yes. More private, more private, lets get the headlines with tatiana. Tatiana. Emily. Thank you. The top stories this hour. The final report of the infected blood inquiry will be published today by the inquiry chair, sir Brian Langstaff. More than 30,000 people were infected with hiv and hepatitis c between 1970 and 1991 by contaminated blood products and transfusions. Around 3000 of those have died since. Many haemophiliacs given infected blood products as part of their treatment, the Prime Minister is expected to issue an apology following the publication of the report. The chancellor , jeremy hunt, has chancellor, jeremy hunt, has vowed to compensate victims with a £10 billion package, but victim aid goodyear told gb news its not just about the money when the money is a part of this, obviously, because after 40 years with no insurance, mortgages and so on, lack of employment, finances do come into it. Of course there are losses, but its about contrition and justice today. We need things that we need delivered survivors to robustly recommend our justice, that we waited 40 years for , paymaster general john for, paymaster general john glenn told gb news. The Compensation Scheme wont be announced today, but that it is important as is. Restoring trust within communities. Is the day for those people whove bravely come forward. And ive met many of them, representatives of 40 of the organisations that have stood by these communities over recent years, and they want the focus to be on evaluating that report today. And im keen to honour that. We passed legislation through the house of lords on the 30th of april, just a few weeks ago. That obligates the weeks ago. That obligates the government to set up the infected Blood Compensation Authority that will be set up immediately when royal assent is given next month or very soon after. After. Shadow minister for industry and decarbonisation sarah jones says labour will stand by the governments Compensation Scheme. Keir starmer set out yesterday, is really clear that we will support the government on the package of compensation that they introduce. We know the treasury has already been working on what can be put in place. We know that there has been some interim compensation paid, although not enough , and paid, although not enough, and we push the government on this. The back end of last year , the back end of last year, because the chair of the inquiry had suggested that some interim payments had been made, should be made that havent been. So we will stand, you know, shoulder to shoulder with the government. In other news, iran has confirmed the countrys president , Ebrahim Raisi, and his foreign minister were killed in a Helicopter Crash. Footage shows the crash site on a mountainside in harsh weather conditions, hampered efforts by search teams, but the wreckage was eventually located in East Azerbaijan province. Irans Supreme Leader has declared five days of National Mourning an election for a new president is due to take place in the next 50 days. Julian assange is due to find out whether he can appeal his extradition to the United States. Dozens of supporters have gathered outside the royal courts of justice, where assange is facing the next stage of his legal battle. The wikileaks founder faces prosecution in the us over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose National Defence information, after the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the afghanistan and iraq wars. Mr assanges wife says shell stop at nothing for what shes calling justice. We hope that the courts do the right thing today and find in julians favour, but if they dont, we will take an emergency injunction. Injunction. We will seek an emergency injunction from the European Court of human rights. Ofcom has found gb news broke broadcasting rules in a programme featuring the Prime Minister. The regulator says the Peoples Forum , which aired in Peoples Forum, which aired in february, failed to preserve due impartiality and its now considering a sanction. In a statement, gb news described the development as alarming and an attempt to silence the channel. It says the format placed the public, not journalists , in public, not journalists, in charge of questioning rishi sunak, and he was challenged and criticised on a number of issues. It maintains the programme was in line with the broadcasting code. And a new broadcasting code. And a new coin marking 80 years since the d day landings has been unveiled by the royal mint. To mark the release, two sand artists recreated the design on gold beach , where troops landed in beach, where troops landed in 1944 with a diameter of 35m. The sand art took 5. 5 hours to create the design of the tails , create the design of the tails, or reverse side of the £0. 50 coin was revealed ahead of the anniversary on the 6th of june. For the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Carmela now its back to tom and. Emily. Back to tom and. Emily. Good afternoon britain. Its 12 08 now. After a 40 year fight for justice. In the next half forjustice. In the next half hour, forjustice. In the next half hour , a report into the biggest hour, a report into the biggest treatment disaster in nhs history will finally be published. Yes, the infected blood scandal saw thousands of patients infected with deadly viruses such as hepatitis c and hiv, when they were receiving blood transfusions. Blood transfusions. Well, gb news Political Correspondent Katherine Forster has been following this story and has more for us. Some of my friends have said to me, are you sure . Are you to me, are you sure . Are you sure this is the nhs . Are you sure this is the nhs . Are you sure this is the nhs . Are you sure this is the infected blood . Scandal . Scandal . Is a story so shocking it almost beggars belief. Is a story so shocking it almost beggars belief. In the 19705 almost beggars belief. In the 1970s and 80s, the nhs gave contaminated blood to over 30,000 people, to haemophiliacs whose blood doesnt clot properly and to people needing blood transfusions. Lie ins blood transfusions. Lie ins infected with hiv or hepatitis c, over 3000 have died. Sue wathen was infected with hepatitis c through a blood transfusion. Transfusion. I had so many years of being unwell. Well, very ill actually , unwell. Well, very ill actually, but, just didnt know what was the matter with me. The matter with me. She only found out decades later, and i literally fell back into the chair id been sitting into the chair id been sitting in thinking, this cant be right. The blood product factor eight was largely imported from the states, with blood often coming from prisoners and drug addicts. Warnings it was not safe were ignored for years. There are still two people dying every week that were infected as a result of this scandal. Author and sunday times Political Editor Caroline Wheeler has been campaigning for victims for decades. Victims for decades. Ive spoken to many people whove said that theyve lost count of the number of funerals that theyve attended because of this , but also the financial this, but also the financial effect that this has had people not being able to work for many, many years of their working lives. Some of them have made choices where they havent had families, they havent got married. Colin smith was given infected blood during a routine ear operation, aged two. Despite an edict that it was not to be given to children, he died from aids at seven and at a boarding school for medically vulnerable youngsters, 122 boys were infected. Victims say they were infected. Victims say they were used as guinea pigs with no proper consent. The 30 still alive are fighting for redress. Alive are fighting for redress. Victims have appealed to politicians for many years. And politicians for many years. And finally, the then Prime Minister, theresa may, announced a full Public Inquiry in 2017. The final report is published this lunchtime. This was covered up for many years and the governments of all complexions have said there was nothing to see here, nothing that could have been done differently. Differently. Labour mp diana johnson, whos been campaigning for victims for years, is optimistic i and now we will get the answers, hopefully to what actually happened and who took the decisions which allowed that dirty blood to enter our nhs and what we know is that this was probably the biggest treatment disaster in the history of the nhs and on compensation. Caroline wheeler believes this government is set to act. My this government is set to act. My understanding is that there will be a compensation package announced that it will be northwards of 10 billion. That is a significant amount of money. It cant come soon enough. It cant come soon enough. We have a Whatsapp Group on of a few of us, and we call ourselves blood friends. Two of those people are terminally ill. This is whats happening to people. They are dying. People. They are dying. Katherine forster gb news. Katherine forster gb news. Just an astonishing. Just an astonishing. Astonishing, really astonishing, shall we speak to our gb news Political Correspondent, Katherine Forster she can join us now. Catherine, thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much indeed. Youve spoken to victims families about this scandal, what means the most to them when it comes to this inquiry . Vie it comes to this inquiry . Vie this report being published . This report being published . Yes. Good afternoon, tom and emily. Well, theres three things that victims and victims families are looking for. Of course, 3000 people have already died and will never see any measure of justice. And two people still dying every week. First of all, they are looking for answers and the report thats being published by sir bnan thats being published by sir Brian Langstaff. And as a result Brian Langstaff. And as a result of this Public Inquiry out at 1230, will give some long awaited answers. I hear its about 2000 pages. People have been piling into central hall behind me to read it. So answers. And who knew who took the decisions . Who covered it up . Who is to blame . How did up . Who is to blame . How did this actually happen . Thats the first thing. Then undoubtedly they want an apology, a proper, full apology. This is something thats been going on for decades. Successive governments have pushed it down the road because its too hard and too expensive. We expect that the expensive. We expect that the Prime Minister, rishi sunak, will issue a full apology in the house of commons this afternoon on behalf of this government and successive governments that did not act. And the final thing really is compensation. Of course, no amount of money is going to make up at all to what these people have gone through and the lives that have been stolen. But we are expecting an stolen. But we are expecting an announcement on compensation tomorrow and upwards of £10 billion, a really significant amount of money for people, not just those infected, those that have hiv or hepatitis c or their bereaved partners, but also the affected. So the parents of affected. So the parents of children that have died or the vice versa, you know, people whose lives have been torn apart by this. So we dont expect the details about the money to come until tomorrow. Therell be then several weeks of consultation. Several weeks of consultation. But it does seem that finally, finally, this is a story that beganin finally, this is a story that began in the early 1970s, and this is a day that, you know, many people thought they would never see. Finally, some answers, an apology , some answers, an apology, some compensation, and some small measure of justice. Just the most astonishing story, especially when you hear the individual stories. And it sounds like £10 billion is the most astonishing amount of money. But it really is for the most astonishing story. After all, there were people who didnt just lose their children , didnt just lose their children, but they lost their jobs. The stigma around, particularly hiv aids , if a child had contracted aids, if a child had contracted it, there were cases of parents then losing their jobs, having then losing theirjobs, having to move home, having a real stigma placed upon the whole family in society. Yes, exactly. And just to give you one example, little colin smith, who i mentioned in that package, he had, he was haemophiliac he got a blood transfusion when he was two for an ear operation. He contracted aids through that , and he died aids through that, and he died when he was seven. At the point at which he died , he weighed at which he died, he weighed only as much as a four month old baby and his parents, his family were vilified because such was the stigma of aids at that time. And of course, his parents. You can never make it up to them. You can never give them back their little boy, but just absolutely horrendous. And other people , people that havent people, people that havent died. Some people have lost multiple members of their family. Other peoples make the decision to not have children unable to work because Long Term Health implications. It really is , quite something. So a really is, quite something. So a really huge day today for those people. And, £10 billion or at least £10 billion were expecting in compensation to victims and their families, where is that money going to come from . Will it come from the nhs budget . I know jeremy hunt is very much behind giving compensation. He has a constituent that hes been campaigning for and been speaking to about this, but where where is this money going to come from . To come from . Well, my understanding and well find out more tomorrow is that its going to be, counted basically as a lump sum. Its going to be Capital Spending funded by borrowing. So it will not be coming out of existing nhs budgets. So you mentioned jeremy hunt. Worth saying. I think he was, of course, Health Secretary. As you mentioned, one secretary. As you mentioned, one of his affected constituents came to him and it was he that pushed for this full Public Inquiry as Health Secretary under theresa may, who was Prime Minister at the time, it was ordered several years ago. It took much longer than expected because of the volume of evidence theyve had to consider. And of course, jeremy hunt is now the chancellor. So rather fitting that its up to him ultimately, and he obviously feels , as does the prime feels, as does the Prime Minister, that this is the right thing to do , no matter the cost. Thing to do, no matter the cost. And it is a it is an extraordinary cost. 10 billion is funded through borrowing. Its five times the amount that the treasury estimated abolishing the £0. 45 rate of income tax would have been pretty, pretty astonishing, that was at that time decreed to be a market moving measure. But lets hope that this doesnt rock the finances too much. Katherine forster, thank you very much for joining us live outside the inquiry. Well be back with you as soon as we know more details. Yes. 1230 we are expecting this long awaited report to drop to be published. So well come back to catherine once that is there. But were also going to talk about irans president because he has been dramatically killed in a Helicopter Crash. Well bring you the very latest with our home and security edhon with our home and security editor. Stay with us. This is good afternoon, britain. Were on gb news. Well, its 1222. Youre watching and listening to. Good afternoon, britain. Now, Ebrahim Raisi irans president and his foreign minister have been killed in a dramatic Helicopter Crash. Yes. Harsh weather conditions made it difficult for search teams to find the wreckage. Efforts by searching teams. But efforts by searching teams. But it was eventually located in East Azerbaijan province. That province in iran . Yes. There has been no evidence of foul play. Irans Supreme Leader has declared five days of National Mourning. Now an election for a new president is due to take place in the next 50 days. Although we have to put heavy quote marks around that word election. Of course, its only after an approved list of candidates shall we get the details now, with gb news home and security editor mark white, who joins us now, and mark, this is a significant moment, not just for iran , but for the wider just for iran, but for the wider region, too. Yes, indeed, there was a great deal of concern when the news started emerging yesterday, with clearly concerns that perhaps there had been foul play involved here, but thankfully so far at least, weve heard nothing coming from the iranian government to suggest that theyre pointing the finger of blame at anyone else. And of course, by that we really mean israel. So they seem to be off the mind that whatever happened, it was either mechanical failure or an issue with flying in a mountainous region in heavy fog. Mountainous region in heavy fog. The images youre seeing now are up close images that the media have been able to get. Have been able to get. Surprisingly, perhaps, given how strictly controlled the media is in iran. But theyve been taken right up to the crash scene in the mountains in the azerbaijani Eastern Province of northern iran to see the wreckage there. And there are 1 or 2 parts that are still recognisable. Still, are still recognisable. Still, the tail fin of the helicopter that that reporter was standing next to. But the rest is really just mangled wreckage and black blackened remains. Mark iran is often referred to as one of the principal actors in whats known as an axis of evil between china and russia, and often north korea as well. This destabilising moment could have wider implications after all, in the accession of the next ayatollah, who is, i think 85 years old, what do we know about irans internal plans now . Well, iran, of course , as you well, iran, of course, as you say, tightly controls who is the president of that country. Theyve had , subsequent theyve had, subsequent elections where theyve been able to gain even, an even tighter grip on hardliners within the political establishment in iran. That is what raisi was a hardliner. He was being tipped as a potential replacement for the Supreme Leader , Ayatollah Khomeini, who leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, who is 85 and reportedly in ill health. Whoever, though, succeeds him will still fall into that category of hardliner without a doubt, they will be chosen to fit in with what the other hardliners in the regime want from a leader, from a president of that country , but president of that country, but there is always the potential for instability, with the figurehead. Well, the supreme figurehead. Well, the Supreme Leader being the ultimate figurehead, but the president being a very significant figure in that country as well. We have seen in the past significant protests and violence thats erupted when hardliners have cracked down on any form of dissent. But iran is going through an economic crisis at the moment, with inflation at 40. And that, of course, does fuel the potential for unrest as well. So we are waiting to see what will happen. The funeral for, ex president raisi rac will be tomorrow in accordance with islamic tradition, and as you mentioned there, the election, for the chosen successor will be within the next 50 days. And, mark, is it fair to say that this is a paranoid regime, as you mentioned, their economic struggles . Also, a lot of discontent among the public. There will be iranians who are celebrating this news. Well, absolutely. There will be many iranians, both in country and certainly that iranian diaspora thats been forced to leave iran over recent decades, who will be celebrating the death of this hardliner. And of course, many western countries as well. Few tears will be shed for the passing of this man, they are a paranoid regime. Of course they are. As all, despotic regimes are in that sense. So we await really to see how that election goes and what the public reaction often will be. We know, according to reports, that there are significant security personnel in numbers now out on the streets of irans main urban areas to ensure that there is no arrests and unrest, i should say, in the coming days. Tell us a little bit about how we can be sure, or at least confident that that there was not foul play, at hand here. Theres been much speculation about the quality of aircraft in iran, particularly thanks to western sanctions. Yeah, well, this helicopter itself was an old bell 212, an american helicopter , that, you american helicopter, that, you know, was, for decades or so old and they struggled to get the parts to be able to ensure that these aircraft remain properly airworthy so that will be, im sure, a key factor in investigating what has gone on here. Also of course, the decision to fly the president in what was less than ideal weather conditions in a mountainous region , and i guess the concern region, and i guess the concern is always got to be if the finger of blame starts to point towards, officials within the government, then, does it actually conveniently point elsewhere and suggest that foul play elsewhere and suggest that foul play might have been at play here . If that is the case, if it does develop into that, then clearly that is much more worrisome in the weeks ahead. Worrisome in the weeks ahead. But for the moment at least, the mood music coming out of tehran seems to not be indicating that they have any suspicions about what caused the crash. Really, really interesting stuff there, mark. I suppose one of the big question marks around all of this is what happens with the conflict in the middle east, because its not just israel thatis because its not just israel that is fighting hamas, its iranian proxies, hezbollah funded by iran , the houthis in funded by iran, the houthis in yemen, funded by iran, that are actually posing a great threat as well. Will this have any reverberate on these proxy actors, proxy actors that frankly , have been hitting frankly, have been hitting british interests as well . Yeah , i think thats a very yeah, i think thats a very good point, actually. And there is always the potential that they want to lash out in response to whats happened, whether the government in tehran, sees the hand of another involved in that Helicopter Crash or not, proxies may see it differently. They may want to lash out , just through anger at lash out, just through anger at what has happened to president raisi. We know that this morning already there have been some missiles that have been launched by hezbollah into northern israel, its often a daily routine up in northern israel. It has to be said as well. Routine up in northern israel. It has to be said as well. There it has to be said as well. There are not many rockets, if any, these days launched from gaza because of the operation to take out and dismantle hamas in gaza. But still, on occasions you get these attacks from, proxy groups in syria and iraq. You weve just had the news in from the infected blood inquiry. We have indeed. And a subtle, pervasive and chilling cover up as we speak. Were receiving the first few details of this report into whats been described as the worst treatment disaster in the worst treatment disaster in the history of the nhs. The history of the nhs. Between 1970 and 1991, the infected blood scandal saw tens and thousands of people who underwent blood transfusions left with Lifelong Health complications such as hepatitis c and hiv. C and hiv. Well, gb news Political Correspondent Katherine Forster joins us now. Catherine, this report has now been published , report has now been published, what does it say . What does it tell us . Yes, some 2500 pages in this report and already really from the little weve seen of it, it could not be any more damning. Sir Brian Langstaff, whos chaired the inquiry , talks of chaired the inquiry, talks of a subtle, pervasive and chilling cover up and the deliberate destruction of relevant documents. It goes on to say that they believe that someone, a Civil Servant , took an active a Civil Servant, took an active decision to destroy documents in the early 1990s to basically cover the tracks of what has gone on here. And in the case of what happened at treloar school, that boarding school for haemophiliac boys , boys, haemophiliac boys, boys, absolutely shocking. He says absolutely shocking. He says that children were used as objects for research, that the risks of contracting hiv and hepatitis were ignored. He said that the staff favoured the advancement of research over the best interests of the children, which he said was unethical and wrong. He said there was no doubt that staff were aware of the risks. We knew that it would the risks. We knew that it would be explosive. Its been many years in the making, but my goodness , these early goodness, these early indications, just from what weve seen so far at absolutely damning on many levels, andy burnham, the mayor of greater manchester, somebody whos campaigned on this for a long time, he has previously described this as a criminal cover up on an industrial scale. Cover up on an industrial scale. It really does seem that way. Catherine just to go over those first few details, this cover up, but particularly the destruction of documents by a Civil Servant or by Civil Servants in the early 90s, i suppose these facts have been eked out over the course of this inquiry. How long has this inquiry. How long has this inquiry been going on for . Well, it was ordered by theresa may when she was Prime Minister back in 2017 at the behest of the then Health Secretary. Now chancellor jeremy hunt, whod had an affected constituents, so its been going on for 5 or 6 years. It was due to report last year. Its gone on for a year longer because of simply the huge amount of evidence. So the people inside that have gone in to see it a few hours early, theyre not giving out paper copies. And when you listen to the length, 2527 pages, its really easy to understand why. But sir Brian Langstaff did issue an interim findings about a year ago and said there was no reason to delay beginning compensation. Then now that hasnt happened, but it does sound like things are finally going to move and were expecting an announcement on upwards of £10 billion of compensation to be made by the government tomorrow. And, catherine, the inquiry says, much of the responsibility for failures identified in the report lie with successive governments failing to act in order to save face and expense. Order to save face and expense. How does rishi sunak the Prime Minister, who were expecting to stand up and apologise . How does he even begin to apologise for something that has gone on for something that has gone on for so many years and so many governments had failed to get a handle of , well, theres handle of, well, theres nothing, is there really that anybody can say or do that will in any way compensate these people for what theyve been through . And the 3000 people who havent seen any measure of justice because theyve already died. But rishi sunak standing up and offering what i expect to be a profuse and profound apology on behalf of successive governments , i think that will governments, i think that will mean something to these families. Theyve wanted an apology. Theyve wanted answers. The theyve wanted answers. The answers are now coming. Okay. Its taken decades too long. This tragedy should have stopped, really, as soon as it beganin stopped, really, as soon as it began in the early 1970s and by the 80s. And it hasnt. But you know, i think it will go some way. Theyre never going to see ultimate justice, are they . And of course, theres many people that potentially, you know, will never be held to account. Many never be held to account. Many of the people involved in the 70s and 80s will have passed away. And we dont know whether any criminal prosecution will be brought. I think that could happen at certainly happened elsewhere. But, you know, at least this is something. And the least this is something. And the money too, there will be very significant amounts of money going to some of these families. Again, you cant make up for whats happened , but it will be whats happened, but it will be something. Catherine, this was first reported about in the press back in 1983. That was when the first article in the mail on sunday established that there was likely this scandal going on, and yet it wasnt until 2017 that an inquiry was set up. Indeed, this blood continued to be given to people throughout the early 1990s as well, or at least to the late 1980s. This is the most extraordinary litany of failure after failure. Failure after failure. Yeah, quite incredible, isnt it . The warnings were clearly there from the mid 1980s, i believe. There was a Television Documentary as well. People like the then Health Secretary, kenneth clarke, and came in for quite a lot of criticism during the inquiry. I think he feels hes been unfairly targeted. Of course, many ministers, governments , nhs officials have governments, nhs officials have perhaps not asked as many questions as they should or looked the other way. But at the looked the other way. But at the time, he said all there is no conclusive live evidence. There is no conclusive proof that these infections were being transmitted by blood. But there were certainly a lot of red flags, a lot of red flags. But you know, this factor eight blood product was being brought in from america. America got blood often from people down on their luck in prisons, drug addicts because they were being paid for it. It wasnt heat treated that would have killed the viruses. And, you know, the warnings were there, the warnings were there, and yet they were not heeded. There, and yet they were not heeded. And people went on to be heeded. And people went on to be infected. In the case of colin smith, that i was talking about a little bit earlier, who died of aids at seven, and by the time he was given, that factor eight product when he was aged two, there was an edict that it was not to be given to children. And yet he was given it anyway. Yes. I mean, this report highlights a multitude of failures, but one of the most shocking things that ive read is that failure to be truthful with patients. So cases where with patients. So cases where doctors knew a patient had caught hiv or another disease through this , this, this blood, through this, this, this blood, this contaminated blood. But they didnt let them know for months, even even years. I dont know what that must have been like to find out. Yes. Unimaginable, isnt it . And some people went decades without knowing that they had been infected. People that had been infected. People that had had blood transfusions, that had contracted perhaps hepatitis c that were very unwell, that didnt know what it was that was causing the problem. Anita roddick of course, the founder of the body shop, she died. She was given a blood transfusion after the birth of her daughter. She didnt find out until decades later. And in the case of the boarding school, where 122 boys were infected and only 30 of them are still alive, you know, we now know from this inquiry what they suspected and have said for many years that they were knowingly being experimented on. They werent told of the risks their parents were not told of the risks. And then, you know, subsequently , then, you know, subsequently, theyre taken into room and theyre taken into room and theyre said, youve been infected and youve been infected. Youve been infected. You havent it is it is absolutely unimaginable. And i have to say, when i first heard of this story, Caroline Wheeler, who is the Political Editor of the sunday times, worked on this for decades. She first told me about this a few years ago. I could hardly believe it, because it just seems so outrageous that you think it cant be true. And yet it is. And its a story thats really gone under the radar for decades. But now the truth is emerging, and it really couldnt be more shocking. Couldnt be more shocking. It really does emphasise that that weight of this story and the weight upon people who have been waiting so long for this to finally conclude. Of course, finally conclude. Of course, catherine, there was an interim report in this inquiry , vie, report in this inquiry, vie, that was published. And there were many, many calls at the time of the interim report for compensation to be paid. At that stage, the government kept on saying it wanted to wait until this moment, this day, the final conclusion , to pay the money. Conclusion, to pay the money. But of course, as you said earlier, two people are dying every week, every week counts. Every week, every week counts. Yes, thats right. And so many have died without ever seeing any form of justice at all. And yes , sure, the all. And yes, sure, the government has dragged its heels a bit because there was an interim report a year ago. They basically said, get on with it. Theres no reason not to start paying theres no reason not to start paying compensation. Some people paying compensation. Some people and people who were infected or their their partners, if theyve passed away, have received interim payments of about £100,000. But if you are a child who lost a parent, if youre a parent who lost a child , or if parent who lost a child, or if you are still, you know, theres been nothing. So, theres a five been nothing. So, theres a five week consultation after the compensation is announced, lets hope people will start to get money soon, because many People Living still living with this illnesses , you know, havent illnesses, you know, havent been able to work, they havent been able to work, they havent been able to get married. Catherine, thank you very much indeed for bringing us all that detail. Were going to head over to a press conference that campaigners are holding. Lets campaigners are holding. Lets go live in the uk. And i just feel validated and vindicated by sir brian and his report today. Report today. Ms3 arne slot , i think i ms3 arne slot, i think i would like to echo those thoughts. I think everybody today has read of the, disaster that unfolded, and sir brian has been very thorough and has not minced his words. His words. Sir brian has told the truth today and thats whats important , is today and thats whats important, is that we carry on telling that truth. And, so that this isnt this cover up doesnt get covered up again. Its a really, really important day for that. I would say jason as well. I would say jason as well. I would say jason as well. For me, the key findings are that commercial factor products never should have been licensed for use. I think that was an incredibly strong finding of the report. And sir brian did what we hoped he would do, that he took the knowledge of this back took the knowledge of this back to the 40s and 50s. This story did not begin in the 70s, and i think its a credit to everybody that has campaigned on this over 3 or 4 decades. Hello everyone. Its tom clark from sky news. Can i get your reaction to the reports conclusion that there is evidence of a cover up by the department of health and others over the years since the initial wrongs happened right back in the 1970s and 80s, i think i would say that my reaction to the fact that there has been a cover up is that to our community, thats no surprise. Weve known that for decades, and now the country knows, and now the world knows as well. And now the world knows as well. And the fact that sir brian has exposed that not only was there a cover up, but there was a deliberate attempt to lie and to conceal, and not just by one person either. This was a systemic this was by government, by Civil Servants, and by health care professionals. I think that really rocks what we think of as society and really challenges the fact, the trust that we put in people to look after us, to do their best and protect us, none of that can we take for granted anymore. Granted anymore. And id just like to add that i think that that the deliberate destruction of records echoes that. Its also how we were treated as well. The sir brian, brings to the fore about how the trusts and schemes that were set up to support us have treated us as well. So this is not only a cover up, its actually an abuse by many people who were set to supposedly care for us throughout the report , sir brian throughout the report, sir brian refers to that line the best treatment possible was given to people, and we now know once and for all that that was a lie. People have been saying that was a lie for many, many years. And now we have the definitive word on that. Definitive word on that. Weve been gaslit for generations. This report today brings an end to that, and it looks to the future as well. And says that this cannot continue this, this, ethos of denial and cover up and that the duty of care for candour has to be reviewed Going Forward so that this can never happen again i and people have lost decades of their life campaigning and thatis of their life campaigning and that is added to the trauma. Not only are you dealing with infection, dying , loss of infection, dying, loss of family, loss of youth, years and years of that have been wasted on this campaigning should never have happened, should have been deau have happened, should have been dealt with straight away. Dealt with straight away. And now i sit here as one of 27,000 blood transfusion victims. Thats what echoes in my head. Thats what echoes in my head. Behind every one of those, 27,000 is a family i hi. Joe pinkstone from the Daily Telegraph. I just wanted to ask you what what you would say to the politicians , in say to the politicians, in charge throughout the scandal and in charge now theres some criticism of quite specific individuals in the report. Id like to get your thoughts on what you would say to them. I think many of the politicians should hang their headsin politicians should hang their heads in shame. I think for the first time, weve seen people like jeremy hunt and other Health Secretaries speak up recently and actually start to acknowledge their part in this scandal because no Single Person is responsible for this scandal. Its been the result of generations of denial, delay and cover up. And there are. Whilst there might be an apology later today from the Prime Minister, its not just the Prime Minister who holds responsibility and accountability for this. There are many others out there, and i would expect over the coming days and weeks for many more people to come forward and say, sorry, im sorry for my part, and if theyre genuinely sorry, they will help implement the recommendations that sir brian has recommended today. And i think they need to know as well what theyve been. Sorry for. Any apologies that weve had in the past have been meaningless , because all theyve meaningless, because all theyve said is that this should never have happened. We know that this have happened. We know that this should never have happened. What what was your part in it . What are you sorry for . Thats what the Community Needs to hear before we can even begin to get closure on this and not mess around any longer. I think the apology on behalf of the state will be welcome. And i think Something Else the community would like to see is a proper apology from all of the pharmaceutical companies that manufactured factor eight and nine products, as well, which includes bayer, baxter, Revlon Health Care alpha, abbott and their successors or subsidiaries. Up to date up to stay cooped up. Victoria macdonald from channel 4 news. It was made very clear that this inquiry would could not recommend corporate manslaughter charges could not go there. But do any of you think or do you know if any complaints have been made officially to the police . Im not aware of any at the moment. I should say that as moment. I should say that as well as being the chair of the society, im a criminal barrister and one of the aspects that sadly the delay has caused is the fact that there are doctors out there who should have been prosecuted for manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, gross negligence manslaughter, doctors who were testing their patients for hiv without consent, not telling them about their infections, who then went on to sadly infect their partners and they then went on to die. Those people should have been in the dock for gross negligence manslaughter and sadly, because of the delay, thats one of the consequences thats one of the consequences that so many people will not see justice as a result. Id like to add that that extends to the politicians and the licence makers that license factor eight, when there were clear warnings in place. This has gone on for so long now that the people that were around at the people that were around at the time will be very hard to track down if theyre even still alive. And thats one of the testimonies of the cover up and the delays in getting justice to this scandal is the time that its taken. Has has meant that justice delayed really is , in justice delayed really is, in this case, justice denied. I think a lot of the villains in this story, sadly, have now died. In particular on died. In particular on a clinical level. I would include professor arthur bloom and doctor charles ritzer, who were the two leading haemophilia care figures at the time and for whom, if they were still alive today, i think there could well be a case for criminal charges , be a case for criminal charges, and thats just a testament to the fact that the government did not launch a Public Inquiry earlier at the time. It should have happened probably in the 90s. I mean, in the report today, it says that there was enough, pubuc it says that there was enough, Public Interest in this scandal, for the inquiry to have been launched around 1986. Just think about the delay for a moment and think how many people could have been brought to justice at that point, but havent. I think we need to be aware, too, of the deliberate destruction of records, the records, not just patient records, not just patient records, but records kept by the department of health and that has become clear in the report that they were deliberately destroyed. And also the evidence that was coming forward and being placed, placed in front of government by campaigners, that was dismissed. And i think today was dismissed. And i think today is about the vindication of many of those campaigners who some of some have sadly died. And i think thats what needs to be remembered, that this is this has been 40 years of cover up and campaigning. Can i add that theres an unprecedented aspect to this inquiry , because sir brian inquiry, because sir Brian Langstaff has said that this is not his final word. He is not not his final word. He is not sending his final report to the government today. The government today. The recommendations that hes recommended. And he said that recommended. And he said that the government will have to provide a report to Parliament Within 12 months about those recommendations. Saying whether recommendations. Saying whether or not they are going to implement them or explaining why they are not going to implement them. And he will expect them to account for that, which i think is unprecedented, because what the chair of the Public Inquiry is saying to government is, i dont trust you. And thats what the community have been saying for decades, is i believe there should be a presumption in the inquiries act that recommendations from inquiries should be implemented unless government can provide good reasons, why not . Why is it that we continue to have these burning injustices . Why is it in the United Kingdom we continue to have these scandals . Its because we ignore the recommendations of public inquiries and that must stop today i hi. Hi. Sorry. M hi. Sorry. Jay pinkston from the Daily Telegraph again, i just wondered, as my understanding is that theres some, some court cases that. Have been paused while the inquiry makes its final report. Inquiry makes its final report. I wonder if you feel the final report. Is enough of a sense of justice, or if youll be perhaps resuming legal action, against the state. In regards to the Group Litigation in, in my name against the department of health, that will very much, i think , depend on what the think, depend on what the government does now, particularly in terms, you know, its a civil case. Depending on how they, come forth tomorrow with their proposals on compensation and what that looks like, i think that will go a long way in helping to decide what we do with that case next. And if we lift the stay, there are other litigations, such as the treloar litigation and other litigations going on as well, but i wouldnt be able to comment on those. Hi, im lynn varne for radio france international. Whats the france international. Whats the general feeling at the reading of this report . Is it relief renewed anger . Vindication i think for me theres been a whirlwind of emotions today. Im sure everybody on this table would would agree with that. When youve been building up to a single day for 40 years, theres no right, wrong or right emotion about it. But for campaigners who have been doing this for so long for saying the things that are now in this report for so long, i think relief, absolute relief will be an overriding emotion. And thats certainly the case for me i i i think many feel that like this is the beginning of the end, because having had an excellent Public Inquiry and we should commend the chair and his team for the inquiry, the ball is now in the governments court and it will depend on the government response. And until government response. And until we have a full government response in terms of compensation, all the other recommendations, its only then we will be able to judge whether or not this inquiry has been successful or not. Hi, my name is emilio. I work for politico, i have a question which is, obviously weve seen sort of some similarities with this recent post office, scandal as well, where it seems like the politicians didnt really take it seriously enough or potentially worse, corporate wrongdoing potentially was brushed under the carpet. Its taken a really long time to , for taken a really long time to, for people to notice that and to get to close to an end to that situation. Do you think thinking about that and this situation, do we have a kind of wider problem with our society or our politics in terms of listening to people who have been wronged and getting things sorted quickly and trusting them, essentially , that goes back to essentially, that goes back to what i said earlier about the truth. This is the day of the truth andifs this is the day of the truth and its up to society , up to and its up to society, up to you, the media, to ensure that that truth gets told and to keep coming back to it. Otherwise we will be back in a situation and millions of pounds of money that has been put into this inquiry would have been wasted, i think. Sorry i was just going to say, i think that the if we look back at this , it was cost that was at this, it was cost that was a huge factor in why they, bought in the American Products in why they didnt , screen the blood they didnt, screen the blood for transfusion. And now cost is for transfusion. And now cost is a factor yet again , because its a factor yet again, because its going to cost much, much more and has cost much, much more. And has cost much, much more. And thats just in monetary terms. And im not thinking , terms. And im not thinking, then of even the loss of life , then of even the loss of life, which is the most unbearable cost. Cost. Not only is the loss of life that those people are still infected, need Ongoing Health and social care needs , and that and social care needs, and that needs to be addressed within any compensation package and that needs to be talked about. Needs to be talked about. I think today sees the victory of truth over power. And victory of truth over power. And you talk about the post Office Scandal and this scandal, health care and the law are the twin pillars of our civil society, and theyve both been rocked to their foundations by both of these scandals. Had this inquiry happened decades ago, when it should have happened , might the should have happened, might the post Office Scandal or large parts of it have been avoided . Parts of it have been avoided . Possibly. And thats the real tragedy of this, that we continue not to learn from failures. Failures. I mean, weve mentioned two scandals, this one in the post office. There are many others that coalesce around the hillsborough law. Now, a campaign which andy burnham started, such as the Nuclear Test Veterans Grenfell Tower fire, the story of zayn, who died as a result of , toxic died as a result of, toxic matter in a family household. There are so many of these campaigns and they all need to be looked at. I think the Civil Service has, closed ranks around a lie for a long time in this inquiry, and i think the similar thing has happened in the post office and many of the other inquiries that jason has just mentioned, and ministers, sadly werent given the truth. And i think that decision was made a long time ago, and money is at the source of it. It seems to be always at the source of it. And always at the source of it. And we know there were conversations in higher levels of government saying that if you compensate the haemophiliacs, then that sets a precedent. So lets not do it. And when you continue do it. And when you continue that, that line, that government line and closing your ranks around denial, then thats what thats the sort of this is the this is the result of it. And the post office is the result of it. And we need systemic change and a duty of candour at all levels of government, including the Civil Service, to make ministers absolutely aware of what the options are, and then maybe wed have a chance of not having this repeated. Having this repeated. Thanks. Its ryan at the mail, some of the strongest words in the report today were for lord clarke, who sir bryan described as combative and his evidence as argumentative. He said that will have aggravated the distress and upset of many. I wondered if anybody had any thoughts on what sir bryan said. Thoughts on what sir bryan said. Ispent thoughts on what sir bryan said. I spent three days watching lord clarke giving evidence and he was patronising in the extreme. He had never , clearly never met he had never, clearly never met anybody with haemophilia and considering this is the worst treatment disaster in the history of the nhs , for the history of the nhs, for the Health Secretary not to sit down with that community and actually meet them and learn about whats happened to them is absolutely appalling. And he sadly, he appalling. And he sadly, he continues in that disposition and i think he owes the community an apology , not Just Community an apology, not just for his time as Health Secretary, but for the manner and the lack of humanity and compassion that he showed when he gave evidence to this inquiry and disdain for the inquiry itself and its process. Itself and its process. One of the things that stands out in my mind from lord clarkes evidence is that he asked , is factor eight a pill . Asked, is factor eight a pill . He didnt even know what it was, and i actually used that as a way to ask the media to please assist with the public understanding about that product and why its so dangerous, because it is fundamental to the report today. Report today. Well, there you go. We were just listening there to a press conference. Some of the key Campaign Issues in this infected blood scandal, making their voices heard, really reacting to the publishing of that report today, a strong words, i felt the theme of cover up was most strongly heard there, lots of angen strongly heard there, lots of anger, frustration and hope that perhaps this inquiry might lead to the recommendations being implemented. Yes, and they spoke of the meaningless apologies that had been issued in the past. Apologies without specifics. Theyre hoping now for apologies with specifics, but lets speak now to the reporter who first broke the infected blood scandal all the way back in 1983. Sue douglas joins us now. And, sue, you as a tenacious young medical reporter for the mail on sunday, got this story. How did you do it . It . Well, gosh, it all seems so long ago now. It was the most extraordinary story , really, extraordinary story, really, probably the biggest one ive ever had. And a friend of mine, when i was working in the medical press , doctors, largely medical press, doctors, largely as an audience , and id stayed. As an audience, and id stayed. Shed stayed at that job, and id been moved on to the glory of fleet street and a medical correspondent on a new, as it was then newspaper , the mail on was then newspaper, the mail on sunday, looking for amazing investigative stories and to be the voice of, yeah, their readers and the people. So i came across this story of i had this friend whod been to a very bonng this friend whod been to a very boring drug conference, and there was a little gaggle afterwards at this, big pharma funded conference about haematology. And it was i dont even know exactly what it was all about. But at the time, there was a small gaggle of scientists really worried at the bar, and she told me about this story. And this is how we together broke the story. And the daily mail picked up on it as well. So already the medical world knew that something very wrong was going on. So a few people and my whistleblower , people and my whistleblower, whose name remains in my heart and never, ever published, basically were voicing serious concerns amongst their own kind , concerns amongst their own kind, amongst haematologists that blood that we were giving as life saving treatments was actually infected and could ultimately kill people. So i was very obviously excited about this story, but horrified that this story, but horrified that this might be going on. The said whistleblower, whos probably one of the heroes in our story rather than a journalist, although i think the fact that we can be the voice of those people, weve just been listening to at that conference is extraordinary. All those years later, that person was very brave because he risked his job, his reputation by talking to me. And he did so anonymously , obviously. But at the time id gone to talk to him and i pretended because i didnt think for a nanosecond he was going to talk to a journalist. I pretended i was a haematologist as well , and i pretended i was a haematologist as well, and i was pretended i was a haematologist as well , and i was lucky. My as well, and i was lucky. My background, i got away with it probably in the end, he knew because i wasnt a very good haematologist and he told me. He told me, without knowing that i was busily making notes or recording some of our conversation, that he was seriously concerned that people were getting first hepatitis c, which was a very, very dangerous disease that still resulting in a number of deaths all the time. And that horrible statistic of three per week is possibly a few less, but not many. And as many less, but not many. And as many of the people at that press conference know, ongoing ticking time bombs of the results of their contamination often, but most importantly at that time, and none of you are old enough to remember, aids was brewing and aids was really the big killer disease that was sweeping through america. And at that point, we only knew that it was, transmitted by blood, but we didnt really know how. So so at the end of our meeting, he said , the end of our meeting, he said, and i do know other people who are seriously concerned about it, people and patients in britain whove had a blood transfusion or more importantly, factor eight to treat their haemophilia. And they are seriously sick. And i was absolutely desperate to copper bottom this story and actually let him know that i was a journalist. But again, at that point, i said, no, im not going to and rushed back to the office. This was in cardiff at the time and we got a whole team on the story. I then phoned him and confessed and he laughed and said i wasnt a very good haematologist anyway , but that haematologist anyway, but that i was to promise never to come to see him again and never ever to reveal his name, which i on that point. How much pushback was there from the medical establishment at this time, from those who were giving out this treatment . There must have been a huge amount of resistance to your work. Well, what happened was there was that worry, but no one was voicing it in the medical press. There was a bit when we published that sensation headline. And i remember at 25, 26 years old thinking, oh my god, now what hospitals using killer blood. Now, there werent many tabloid headlines as shocking as that. And the press council and doctors and bloom and lots of other people came down on me and the newspaper like a ton of bricks. And like a ton of bricks. And basically it was recommended that i should be sacked for being irresponsible and exposing people to the risk of their lives. So i might have been causing their deaths if they discontinued taking their treatment. Now, to be fair, some doctors may have thought that too, because what was the alternative . If my alternative . If my scaremongering had genuinely created people and some of the people at that press conference and people i still talk to did stop and now say, sue, you saved my life, which is an amazing thing to tell a journalist , but thing to tell a journalist, but i maybe some of them might have bled to death because at that time we didnt have an alternative. But within a year, alternative. But within a year, two years, three years, we did , two years, three years, we did, and other countries were busy hurrying to get out. Alternative and the heat treatments were viable. So the cover up starts from the very beginning. The cover up is amongst doctors, perhaps frightened that there wasnt an alternative , and wasnt an alternative, and politicians genuinely scared that they were importing a very cheap but contaminated lead killer. And sue, did you , after you and sue, did you, after you broke this story with that sensationalist headline, you received the pushback from the medical community, people wanting to, essentially silence you. Did you continue to pursue this investigation . Did do you continue to speak to other whistleblowers or other people in the medical community to find out more . Thats the Million Dollar question, because at the time, i was lucky it would be like any of you with this report saying, no, no, no, no, no, its not true. Stop it. And the establishment in all its glory, the drug companies, the doctors, the drug companies, the doctors, the advisors, the care workers , the advisors, the care workers, everything was. No, its not right. Shes wrong. But my right. Shes wrong. But my newspaper did think i was right. And we had enough evidence and we had enough. Not whistleblowers , because we had whistleblowers, because we had our one. And everyone else, to be brutally honest, was scared. Be brutally honest, was scared. And, and even my whistleblower at one point phoned me and said, and this is really important , and this is really important, im going to lose my job. If anyone knows what ive been doing, but im going to tell you somebody else and that was another person ive never named. So i only had the two real sources whos got two patients now in a Teaching Hospital in london who are dying of aids because of the contaminate of blood. So at each stage i was being handed your point to another one who was worried enough but was seriously scared, as at various points was i, but for very Different Reasons that their reputation would be completely damaged and that they would be either sacked or just treated like a pariah. It is just the most astonishing story. And so i suppose the whole country has to thank you for your tenacity as a journalist in your 20s, going through all of that , the weight through all of that, the weight of the british medical establishment against you. Its a really inspiring story. But sue douglas, thank you so much for speaking to us on this really important day. Thanks for your time. Yes , its very interesting yes, its very interesting indeed, particularly as weve been talking so much about whistleblowers within the nhs and how difficult it is for doctors, nurses, Staff Members to speak up when things go wrong. When it comes to Patient Safety, this is a real life example of journalists trying to get to the bottom of something and finding so much pushback, so difficult for whistleblowers to come forward. Anyway, weve got some breaking news for you. Yes, from the last few minutes, Julian Assange has won a bid at the high court to bring an appeal against his extradition to the United States. Yes. Gb News Reporter ray addison joins us now from the high court, ray, what does this mean for julian . Mean for julian . Well, a huge outbreak of cheering celebration. Drums chanting here from his supporters as hundreds of supporters as hundreds of supporters here outside the royal courts of justice, when juuan royal courts of justice, when Julian Assange , as he said, has Julian Assange, as he said, has won that bid at the high court to launch an appeal against his extradition to the United States. Now thats despite us assurances to the court that if assange is tried for spying there, he would receive a fair trial and would not face the Death Penalty. Now much of the argument that we heard in court today hinged on whether he would be able to use the First Amendment count as part of his defence in court. Thats the right to freedom of speech. Now also, the second main reason why it was rejected was there was claims by assanges lawyers that he would be discriminated against because he is not a us citizen. Now, the us attorney general , in citizen. Now, the us attorney general, in his response, said that he could seek this. Assange could seek to rely on the First Amendment, but ultimately it was up to the us courts to decide whether they would allow him to do that or not. So it was not a guarantee. Thats because of the separation of powers in the United States between the attorney general and the us courts. They they can ignore any promise that would have been made by the us attorney general. Made by the us attorney general. Now, also, in some cases, freedom of speech we heard is does not relate to National Defence information. So that was another concern in that assanges lawyers brought to the attention of the court. Also the casey who was representing the United States, said that whilst there is protection for journalists and whistleblowers, it has to be based on the fact that they had that they acted appropriately and acted reasonably and so there was a huge question mark there over whether he would be able to use that defence. Now, the High Court Judges ultimately said that these assurances provided by the United States were simply not sufficient, and they did grant an appeal forJulian Assange to appeal his extradition on over those freedom of speech and national key points. And as you can hear, a huge amount of celebration from his supporters after 30 years of mr assange being variously on the run, being in house detention, seeking solace in the ecuadorian embassy, and since 2019, of course , hes been since 2019, of course, hes been locked up in belmarsh prison as well. So mr assange locked up in belmarsh prison as well. So mr assange did locked up in belmarsh prison as well. So mr assange did not well. So mr assange did not attend todays ruling. However, attend todays ruling. However, that was down to health grounds, we were told. However, he has got hundreds of supporters here and you never know, he might be able to hear their cheers in belmarsh. Well, ray addison has been the most extraordinary story. Its been a long, long time coming. This this could have been the last moment that this went through a british court, but now it will not be. And mainly on this grounds that he would be at risk of, of the Death Penalty in the United States, despite their assurances. What happens. Next . Assurances. What happens. Next . Well, just just to give you one point, tom, the Death Penalty argument was accepted that he would not face the Death Penalty that was accepted by the court. It was the nationality and the freedom of speech arguments that specifically were were quoted here by the High Court Judges. Now of course, if he if he lost this appeal today, there was genuine fears that he could have been put almost on the next plane to the United States. That now hasnt happened. We know that there will be a further hearing now where mr assange will be able to give a full appeal against this extradition. And of course, this ruling today will give hope to his legal team and hope to all of his supporters, certainly here in the uk and around the world, that the judges have severe concerns about whether he can get a fair trial. Well, the legal battle goes on. Thank well, the legal battle goes on. Thank you very much indeed. Gb News Reporter ray addison there outside the high court. Fascinating to see how much support Julian Assange can still garner. Well, after all of these years. From the high court, back to the infected blood inquiry by our reporter Katherine Forster. Is there on the scene, and she has a guest with her because this has been the most extraordinary time , this most extraordinary time, this most extraordinary time, this most extraordinary moment indeed. The chairman of the haemophilia society, i believe, is with Katherine Forster. Now yes. Good afternoon. Tom and emily. This 2500 page report from sir Brian Langstaff really couldnt be any more damning. He says there was a subtle, pervasive and chilling cover up and also the deliberate destruction of documents. And its had a devastating impact on many peoples lives. 3000 people already, as we know, have died. Already, as we know, have died. And im joined now by andrew march. Now, andrew was infected with hiv when he was nine years old. Andrew, thank you very much for talking to us today on gb news. Can you just take us back to when you were nine . What happened when your family were told that that youd been given infected blood . Well the news came sort of gradually over, you know, a period of a few months. But from that point, our family was changed beyond recognition. Theres no frame of recognition. Theres no frame of reference for what we would have been , what we could have been, been, what we could have been, being infected with hiv. Its been life changing and life limiting , been life changing and life limiting, and i have absolutely no way of knowing what my life might have been like. And at the time of the mid 1980s, there was a huge fear, wasnt there . There was no cure. And people were vilified. Were your family personally targeted . Did you get a hard time from people around you as well . I think we became really isolated , i had some problems at isolated, i had some problems at school. I mean, one of the headmasters wanted to know if he had to disinfect the whole school. There was real problems with my parents being called in to know what to do. And i was to know what to do. And i was still at middle school, so no, it was not handled very well. And then it got worse in the two years that followed, because we ended up with those dreadful adverts of, you know, gravestone bones falling and icebergs melting and being chiselled away with pneumatic drills, you know, dont die of ignorance. Well, you know, whats a nine year old meant to, to do to cope with that , to understand whats happening. And were here now in 2020 for some 40 years on, what do you make of what youve heard from the report so far . Is there from the report so far . Is there anything surprising here, or is it telling you basically what you knew already . Its a huge vindication for what campaigners and ourselves have tried to say and ourselves have tried to say and claim this happened. You know, the extent of the cover up , the, you know, the cover up, the, you know, the infectivity trials, the things that went on in the treloars school, i think theres its a raft of failures. Its just failure after failure has been outlined by the report. Its totally delivered. And what we totally delivered. And what we need to hear and this is a chance for this to be resolved. Whilst most of the truth is coming out. And what do you, thank you so much. I know this is incredibly difficult. Incredibly difficult. Difficult. Incredibly difficult. So youre getting some answers at long last, but youre going to get we hear an apology from the Prime Minister later this afternoon. There will be compensation. Of course. No compensation. Of course. No amount of compensation can in any way make up for what has happened. But, what are you hoping to hear . What are you wanting to happen now . Going forward . I think it it needs to be resolved. Be resolved. And i dont know, some people want like, criminal avenues to be explored. I personally dont want any, you know, like punishment or, you know, to be levied or anything. I think, you know , if theres liability, it know, if theres liability, it might need to be examined. But i might need to be examined. But i think weve got a real opportunity to wrap this up because, you know, im 50 now, and i. Its engulfed a lot of my life. And weve lost a lot of life. And weve lost a lot of people along the way. So we need to get this sorted out. We need, you know , its just its an you know, its just its an opportunity whilst, you know, it looks like most of the truth is coming out. Coming out. Andrew marsh, thank you so much for talking to us today on gb news. I know youve waited for this day for a very, very long time. Really appreciate it. Back to you, tom and emma. Just that its the human stories at the heart of all of this that really make you realise whats been going on. Because to be nine years old and through a blood transfusion be given hiv. The whole of your school, be talking about it. Parents coming in, people wanting you kicked out of the school, teachers saying they want to disinfect the whole place because of your presence. Unimaginable. I mean, the way he said it, its engulfed so many years of his life, so much of his life spent thinking about this, spent worrying about it, spent, i imagine, feeling all kinds of emotions. Kinds of emotions. And the way he spoke about how it was has been family changing , life changing. He changing, life changing. He doesnt know what his life would have been like without this. He was nine years old, nine years old, incredible. Incredible to old, incredible. Incredible to hear from one of the victims and their and the fact he said hes not too keen for any type of criminal avenues to be explored and that sort of thing, which is interesting to i suppose a lot of people just want this to be over after over, after 4 or 5 decades of this. They just want it done. They just want it done. They just want it done. Poor man. Yeah, well, lets hear from the chairman of the infected blood inquiry, sir bnan infected blood inquiry, sir Brian Langstaff. Brian langstaff. Disaster was no accident. People put their trust in doctors and the government to keep them safe. And that trust was betrayed. And then the was betrayed. And then the government compounded the agony by telling them that nothing wrong had been done , that theyd wrong had been done, that theyd had the best available treatment , and that as soon as tests were available, they were introduced. And both of those statements were untrue. Thats why what im recommending is that compensation must be paid now, and ive made various other recommendations to help to make the future of the nhs better and treatment safer. Treatment safer. Well, there we go. Langstaff there. The man who led the inquiry. Yes, it is his report. He has many recommendations in there now available for all to see. But stick with us because weve got a lot to get through this afternoon. Were going to be returning to that. Breaking news. Julian assange wins his bid to bring appeal against his extradition. What happens next . Extradition. What happens next . Youre watching good afternoon britain. Were on. Gb news. Well, its 124. Youre watching and listening to. Good afternoon , britain. Now, Ebrahim Raisi, thats irans president and his foreign minister have been killed in a dramatic Helicopter Crash. Harsh weather conditions made it difficult for search teams to find the wreckage. Efforts by search teams. But it was eventually located in East Azerbaijan province. That province in iran . Yes, there has been no evidence of foul play, but irans Supreme Leader has declared five days of National Mourning, an election for a new president is due to take place in the next 50 days. Election with heavy inverted commas there. But. Gb news. Homeland security editor mark white joins us now for the implications of what is under a dramatic event. Mark, how does this affect the wider region and potentially us here in britain . Here in britain . Well, i dont think it really affects us all that much at the moment. At least it is an internal issue for iran. Now to look to secure the situation. As look to secure the situation. As far as the presidency is concerned, we know that the Vice President is taking charge at the moment until a new president ial election can take place within 50 days. That candidate, whoever it is, will be carefully chosen by the hardliners who are in charge of the iranian government in all, spheres of the iranian government , they are firmly in government, they are firmly in charge, and they will pick a candidate who is no doubt a hardliner that meets their requirements. So we are wait to see who that will be. Theres talk that the Vice President himself could be in the running. The Supreme Leader , ayatollah the Supreme Leader, ayatollah khameneis son, could also , khameneis son, could also, though, be one of the candidates. But were still in the early stages. Weve got a funeral for president raisi to take place first. That will be taking place tomorrow. Amid these five days of mourning in iran, mark, should we be surprised that, iran hasnt come out to say that this was , out to say that this was, israels fault . Well, i think there was always a fear , especially in the always a fear, especially in the early hours after this helicopter disappeared. And helicopter disappeared. And there a finger of blame could be pointed elsewhere. And we really mean israel here in terms of potential foul play. But the mood music , certainly from the mood music, certainly from the authorities in tehran at the moment, does not seem to be suggesting that they are suspicious about foul play at this stage anyway. But that could all change depending as well, of course, on what the investigation uncovers. If it, for instance, starts to cast blame on officials on the way that the ageing helicopter fleet had been maintained about a decision to fly the president of the country , along with the the country, along with the foreign minister and other dignitaries in, pretty atrocious weather in a mountainous region, if the pressure starts to mount there, it is possible that, you know, there could be starting to point the finger of blame elsewhere, but no indication of that as yet. That as yet. And theres a huge amount of, discontent domestically , isnt discontent domestically, isnt there . Earlier, you were talking to us about how the economy is in pretty dire way, in a pretty dire state. And of course, theres huge amounts of repression. Repression. Well, yes. And of course, the man really at the helm over the last few years of the crackdown in, in iran was president raisi a very unpopular figure amongst a very unpopular figure amongst a good number of people in iran who who are fighting against the hard line repressive policies handed down by the Supreme Leader, ayatollah Ayatollah Khomeini , so there is always the khomeini, so there is always the potential for more unrest in the days ahead. And as you mentioned there, yes, the economy in iran at the moment is in a fairly perilous state. Theyve got significant inflation at 40. And of course, the sanctions that have been imposed, heavy sanctions on that country over the years have taken their toll , the years have taken their toll, and that all of that feeds in to general discontentment amongst significant portions of the population, both in iran and the iranian diaspora, who are now spread out around the world. It is a hugely concerning issue because, of course, the current ayatollah, the Supreme Leader of iran, is 85 years old. And of course , the president was and of course, the president was expected to widely expected to succeed the ayatollah. This now throws all of those, rumoured plans up in the air. And big question marks now over this line of succession in a country that really sits at the heart of what has been variously described as an axis of evil. Yes. I mean, certainly thats the information that seemed to have been fed out from apparent insiders in iran that raisi was being lined up to take over from the ayatollah in the years ahead. He is, as i say, in failing health, how true that was. We dont really know, its pretty opaque in, iranian society. Political, and particularly in the political sphere in iran itself, but we, we wait to see what will happen because clearly there are friends of iran in the region. There are the proxies in that area that take instructions , of area that take instructions, of course, directly from iran as well, who have been reacting with messages of condolence, but also lashing out with hezbollah in southern lebanon, lobbing missiles over towards northern israel. Today, israel has now responded in kind, targeting a number of hezbollah positions in southern lebanon. So the hope is southern lebanon. So the hope is at least that it wont escalate from that. These for tat exchanges across the border from lebanon into israel are fairly common. Theyre almost a daily occurrence. Occurrence. And this could, as you say, have wide reaching consequences outside of iran itself. As you outside of iran itself. As you mentioned, iran is known for, funding terrorism funding proxies, not least hamas and hezbollah. So, could a change of hezbollah. So, could a change of leader. Oh, hezbollah. So, could a change of leader. Oh, im terribly sorry, mark. Im just going to cut into myself there. But thank you very much indeed. Were going to cross over to a press conference where more campaigners and victims of the infected blood scandal are now reacting to the inquiry. Inquiry. Has done this job with, a very much a degree of compassion , and he has got to the root of what has been happening over many years. He has made, some very astute recommendations and we look forward to the government responding to those in a positive way. We continue to be willing to contribute to that process , yes. That process, yes. Well, id agree with john, and we think its a very thorough report. And sir brian has done an excellent job. Our main concern from wales is what will the government do with the recommendations, from what the little ive seen of the report, because weve come up on a coach from wales, so ive had a very quick look at it, it seems that, you know, there are lots of criticisms within it, and it seems that wales mirrored what happenedin seems that wales mirrored what happened in uk government, and decisions were taken without much question. So, our main concern obviously was the leading doctor in wales, professor bloom is named in the report, and it seems that he decided the policies that were going to be adopted , and uk going to be adopted, and uk government did nothing other than accept them, and weve also noted that Diana Walford is criticised in the report. So, you know, its very, very concerning that, you know , the concerning that, you know, the factor concentrates, they were meant to they should have at least been withdrawn by 1978, but they continued to be imported and they were used on, children and newly diagnosed , children and newly diagnosed, children. So its all very concerning , but it isnt concerning, but it isnt anything we didnt already know. We know that the patients were treated without consent. And its just very worrying that government just accepted that. And there was no, there was no candour , there was no candour, there was no truthfulness. And that line was taken and that continued. And as a transfusion victim of scandal quickly. But in the first couple of pagesin but in the first couple of pages in black and white, in 1965, germany was, looking at their blood donations for raised ally pally alt levels. That was in 1965. If our government had taken that on, and anybody that donated with raised a lot and had taken those out of the donation, line , then there would donation, line, then there would be a lot fewer transfusion victims nowadays. So it vindicates my impression that the knowledge was out there. Our the knowledge was out there. Our government ignored it, couldnt be bothered with it , found it be bothered with it, found it was going to be too expensive. I dont know what their excuses are, but this blatantly and black and white says that they have no excuses, that every person that died from those times on could have been saved if theyd done the risks. And put them in place. So im really pleased that its out there now. Nobody can call us, conspiracy theorists. Our truth has been told. Its in black and white and theyve got no place to hide any government over the last 30 to 40 years needs to be called to 40 years needs to be called to account , my to 40 years needs to be called to account, my name is Nigel Hamilton , im chairman of hamilton, im chairman of haemophilia ni. I represent a small , if select haemophilia ni. I represent a small, if select community in Northern Ireland, i lost my twin at christmas day. I lost two cousins. Within the past ten years. I lost two friends within the past two months. We have suffered in Northern Ireland. And the production of this report as it now comes, has been both healing and supportive. It both healing and supportive. It recognises the injustices that have taken place. It gives us an have taken place. It gives us an opportunity to address some of those and try to apply some of the positives that were going to find in this, but with seven volumes and only having received of two and an opportunity to tease through the remaining five volumes on phone, it hasnt been easy to find the answers for you at this stage. What i will say is, interestingly, and its something thats been going on for some time, and the government have now recognised that because of the Prime Ministers Statement Today and ministers Statement Today and minister glens statement to a number of Group Representatives throughout the uk recently, compensation will be paid. That compensation will be paid. That is not an answer to the problems we have, nor is it a solution, but it will help. The other but it will help. The other aspect that has come out of this for me is that while i feel a cascade of emotions , positive cascade of emotions, positive and negative, i think that it indicates quite clearly that the government are culpable. Government are culpable. Successive governments are culpable of neglect, of abandonment and that, unfortunately, has been a culture which has also been adopted within the health service. I looked at Northern Irelands report specifically, and i could see from that that it was evident that they followed suit from the leadership that was given in the uk mainland, and i think all regional, all Regional Health departments did our assembly or our government in Northern Ireland was highlighted as having two problems, and thats why it couldnt deal with the issues. One of them was security issues. One of them was security because there was a big emphasis by ministerial, committed commitment on security. And the commitment on security. And the other issue was the fact that we have not had consistent government over a practical penod government over a practical period of time. And im talking period of time. And im talking years. So assembly has risen and assembly has fallen, and assembly has risen and fallen and has risen again. What they need to understand is they have to show leadership in all the regions. They have to show leadership. And the one thing that seems to be in abandoned here is that that leadership and determination to identify the specific issues that impact on their communities have not taken place. So a culture change is required. Candour is required, and transparency, which will involve and engage the patients. Ihope involve and engage the patients. I hope that from this report, other Victim Groups will be able to identify what mustnt happen to identify what mustnt happen to them. And the lessons that to them. And the lessons that are provided in this report will be listened to and learnt by government Civil Servants and the National Health service. The National Health service. Well, my name is Joyce Donnelly and i represent the scottish infected blood forum. Now when this inquiry started, i had every faith in sir brian and his team and he has lived up more than than i could have expected, i have not had that much time to look at the report. What ive seen, i read i was particularly interested in the chapter on scotland and the recommendations that were made in scotland 20 years ago by lord ross were never carried through. So one can only hope that these recommendations, and i do not see how they could refute it. How could they possibly refute these recommendations . They stand up everything that sir bnan stand up everything that sir brian has put down stands up and has been clarified and proved to be correct. So these recommendations, one hopes, will be carried through to the letter and people will receive what they should have received 20 years ago, 30 years ago, my late husband had this mantra in his life he wouldnt apply for religion or anything else. He said. The government know what theyve done. They know who theyve done. They know who theyve done. They know who theyve done it to , and its up theyve done it to, and its up to the government to put it right. And if the government can now put it right, then a lot of people have missed out. A lot of people have missed out. A lot of people have missed out. A lot of people have passed on and died in the interim, but there are still people who are waiting for it to be put right. And that is my hope for the future. My hope for the future. Hi, im Shelley Phelps from bbc wales. Ive got a question for lynne , please. Theres a lot for lynne, please. Theres a lot of criticism in this report of professor bloom, who, as you were just talking about earlier, he led the cardiff haemophilia centre. Can i get your reaction centre. Can i get your reaction to those findings . Thank you. To those findings . Thank you. Well, well, we weve sort of known the truth for a long time. You know, this has been a lot of it has been uncovered by the campaigners. But obviously the inquiry has put all this on pubuc inquiry has put all this on Public Record , so the feeling of Public Record, so the feeling of the group is, you know , its the group is, you know, its still very much disbelief that that, you know , its now in that, you know, its now in black and white, but it needed to be put on Public Record, that, you know, these things had happened. So that, you know, these things had happened. So there was testing without consent on children, and previously untreated patients were given concentrates when they shouldnt have been given concentrates. And that led to an infection of many, many more haemophiliacs than needed to have been infected at the time. So its just very, very emotional, very, very upsetting for people because many of the facts weve known for a long time. But to see it in black and white is particularly hard for our group to come to terms. With. Hi rachel hall from the guardian, can you give me a sense for how victims and families will be feeling reading the report and is this the moment that that you and they were hoping for . And if theres were hoping for . And if theres anything else that you might be looking for Going Forward, for example, criminal charges. Example, criminal charges. So as regards victims and families, obviously weve had limited viewing of the report because weve been on a coach for four hours. So its been very difficult. But, but yeah, very difficult. But, but yeah, its a feeling of, well , very difficult. But, but yeah, its a feeling of, well, i suppose they now feel that theyre believed because its something that people have been saying for so many years and that in the large part is how we got the Public Inquiry. Its all the campaigning that was done by all the people before us who have no longer here. And so we felt it was our duty to carry on the campaign because we knew that we knew the truth. Obviously, weve had a lot more revealed by the inquiry , but so revealed by the inquiry, but so theres some kind of feeling of closure there. I think the difficulty is that nobody can bnng difficulty is that nobody can bring back the people who have been lost, and that is the real the, the, the heartbreaking thing about it. And then when people are actually now learning that this could have been avoided when weve always been told it was unavoidable , you told it was unavoidable, you know, that is that troubles people . Immensely, i think our people . Immensely, i think our other issue is because there is no trust in government, that even though we know that rishi sunakis even though we know that rishi sunak is going to apologise, this afternoon and theres going to be an announcement tomorrow , to be an announcement tomorrow, we actually dont once the announcement comes tomorrow on compensation, we dont actually know the details of that. And we have great concerns about that because it will be an arms length body, but the government will have already set up all the rules and regulations. So regarding eligibility criteria, and appeals. And i think the difficulty now is that sir brians recommendations may be overruled by government or ignored, and thats a real worry for people that we may still have to keep fighting after 40 years of fighting, you know, so many people have lost their lives, and yet we still have to continue. Sue. So i think people continue. Sue. So i think people are reticent because theyve seen whats happened previously with governments, you know, with the way that, the history has been rewritten , you know, that been rewritten, you know, that nothing had happened that shouldnt have happened. So i feel that the apology is important. But the next stage now of compensation that is bothering a lot of people because obviously they feel that they want recognition. They want recognition. Can i come in on that . Can i come in on that . Well, weve been listening to voices from the nations and regions showing that this is a scandal that affects all corners of the United Kingdom. Lets cross now to our Political Correspondent, Katherine Forster, who joins us outside the inquiry. And, catherine, this has been reverberating across every corner of our nafion across every corner of our nation. Nation. Yes, indeed, it has this 2500 page report by some Brian Langstaff. And really, it could not be any more damning than it is. He talks of a subtle, pervasive and chilling cover up delay , destruction of relevant delay, destruction of relevant documents, and he says that what happened could largely , though happened could largely, though not entirely, have been avoided. And i have to report that it should have been. He also said that successive governments and authorities did not. Patient safety first. Also, astonishingly, he says that the risks of hepatitis posed by blood transfusions or the use of plasma were known to the nhs pnor plasma were known to the nhs prior to the nhs inception in 1948 and the importation of factor eight products should never have been licensed in 1973, so this is decades before this happened. Bear in mind these are blood products that were given in the 1970s and 19805, were given in the 1970s and 1980s, right through to 1991. We knew that warnings had been given by the mid 80s. In fact, kenneth clarke, who was Health Secretary at the time, has been singled out for criticism. But now we hear also that , in fact now we hear also that, in fact the product should never have been licensed in the first place and in fact, that some of the risks had been known decades earlier. It really is quite incredible. But meanwhile, an apology will be forthcoming from the Prime Minister. We understand this afternoon a Compensation Scheme will be outlined tomorrow , upwards of outlined tomorrow, upwards of £10 billion. But of course, no amount of saying sorry or money can ever undo the terrible wrongs that have been inflicted on thousands of thousands of people. One more thing i should just add, sir Brian Langstaff also says that therell be many, many more people who have in fact been infected but are not yet aware. And there are so many people named in this, in this report, catherine, so many people , catherine, so many people, blamed not just successive governments , but individuals governments, but individuals too, who, what are the chances, in your view, of any type of criminal conviction . Criminal conviction . Well, it wasnt within the remit of the investigation of the inquiry to make recommendations for prosecution, but no doubt the Crown Prosecution Service will be looking at this report very closely, i should imagine. Of course, there will be many, many doctors, many officials, etc, who made decisions, who, as we now know, deliberately covered up or destroyed documents or didnt tell patients about risks that they knew were very real, who have already passed away and so will never be held to account. But there may well be others who are still alive, so i think thats something that is quite possible. It has happened quite possible. It has happened in other countries. But, early days yet, although of course, this is a scandal that has been half a century in the making. Well, Katherine Forster, thank you so much for bringing us all that outside the infected blood inquiry location. It has blood inquiry location. It has been the most extraordinary, few decades , really, in this decades, really, in this process. But, stick with us because coming up, process. But, stick with us because coming up , this because coming up, this extraordinary, unexpected, ruling from the high court, juuan ruling from the high court, Julian Assange has won his bid to fight extradition to the United States on espionage charges. Were going to hear charges. Were going to hear from his wife. Youre watching. Good gb news. Good afternoon. Britain has just gone 10 to 2. Now. Julian assange has won a bid at the high court to bring an appeal against his extradition to the United States. Yes. The wikileaks founder faced High Court Judges today in a long running legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States. This has been going on for more than 13 years now. Well, gb News Reporter ray addison joins us now from outside the high court where theres a scene of jubilation. It must be said ray. Yeah, it really is. Theres a bit of a circus atmosphere down here. Now, of course, weve got all the official organisers, but we also have crowds and crowds of supporters. Weve got people of supporters. Weve got people dressed up in orange jumpsuits like Guantanamo Bay. Weve got a man Walking Around holding a placard offering free hugs and just everybody seems to have come down here to celebrate and enjoy this decision. This ruling by those two High Court Judges that Julian Assange can now appeal against, that extradition. Now, it has all seemed to be based on whether or not he could receive a fair trial. If he was removed to the United States. Now much of the argument hinged on whether hed be able to use the First Amendment. Thats the right to freedom of speech as part of his defence. And also, would he or would he not be discriminated against based on the fact that hes not a us citizen . Now, the us attorney general, in their submissions and the case that represented the United States here, said that assange could seek to rely on the First Amendment, but ultimately it was up to the us courts, and much was made of that by the assanges legal team. Theyre saying, well, hold on, due to this separation of powers, yes. The attorney general can can recommend, can can, can say that they want him to be able to use they want him to be able to use the First Amendment. But ultimately, the judges can rule for themselves. And so theyre very much was a big question mark over that element of the ruling. Now, Julian Assange , his ruling. Now, Julian Assange, his wife stella, has spoken after the hearing. This is what she had to say after the judges reached the right decision. We spent a long time hearing the United States putting lipstick on a pig, but the judges did not buy it. The United States should read the situation and drop this case now. Now is the moment to do it. Just abandon this shameful attack on journalists on the press and the public that has been going on for 14 years. As weve heard, theyre very much the supporters , very much much the supporters, very much calling now on President Biden to end this now after 13 years and simply drop the case against assange. In fact, supporters here are saying should be released immediately from prison and should receive the nobel peace prize, no less. Mr assange was not here today because he was not here today because he was too unwell to attend the hearing. However, the cheering may have been audible in belmarsh prison, which is where he currently resides. He currently resides. Ray allison, thank you very much for all of that. Much more to come, including the latest from iran. Dont go anywhere. From iran. Dont go anywhere. A brighter outlook with boxt solar sponsors of weather on. Gb news. Time for your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news today. Many areas fine, dry and quite warm in the sunshine, but a few thunderstorms breaking out, particularly across Northern Ireland this afternoon. Low ireland this afternoon. Low pressure to the north and to the south. High pressure up to the northeast. Were in a kind of pressure no mans land, which means the winds are light, but enough of a breeze and eastern coast to bring some mist and low cloud. Quite a grey start for many. Two and some cloud will be fairly persistent over Northern England and southern scotland today. And then were looking at a few showers breaking out , a few showers breaking out, particularly some lively downpours across the west of Northern Ireland. But for many it stays dry and fine. Some sunny spells and temperatures getting into the low 20s across the south. Quite a bit cooler on some of those north sea coasts. Small chance of 1 or 2 showers breaking out across southern england , maybe west wales, but england, maybe west wales, but theyll be very hit and miss. Many areas here will just stay dry and stay in the sunshine. Still feeling pretty warm even into the evening. Chance of a shower or two over northern parts of wales, but a much greater risk of some intense downpours over Northern Ireland. These thundery showers here could cause some disruption. Most of scotland, though dry and fine. A little cool, perhaps on the east coast and across the northern isles. But generally temperatures in the high teens well inland in the sunshine. Now, as we go through the night, well start to see a few more changes, the cloud thickening up across eastern england. Well see a few more showers breaking out over east anglia and spreading towards the midlands. And later in the night, spreading towards the midlands. And later in the night , the and later in the night, the cloud thickening across the south east. Also some mist and low cloud returning to the coast of northeast scotland. Inland here temperatures well down into a single figures, but elsewhere mostly staying in double digits. Onto tuesdays weather, a real mishmash, quite a grey day over the midlands. Some outbreaks of rain spreading towards northwest england and north wales, and again the chance of some heavy, thundery showers in the afternoon , particularly over afternoon, particularly over southwest england, but also, again, maybe for Northern Ireland. More cloud and rain coming into the east two with much more cloud around tomorrow. It wont be as warm either, but still into the 20s in the southwest. That warm feeling inside from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather gb news. Good afternoon. Britain. Its 2 00 on monday, the 20th of may. A subtle, pervasive , chilling a subtle, pervasive, chilling cover up the damning judgement by the report into the infected blood scandal. The inquiry found it was no accident. Thousands it was no accident. Thousands died. Well have the details. Reaction from the victims and analysis of what went wrong. Itsjudgement analysis of what went wrong. Its Judgement Day forjulian its Judgement Day for Julian Assange. His final appeal to the uk high court. Well, theyve decided that he has won it. Decided that he has won it. Indeed, Julian Assange will be fighting on to stay in the uk, defeating those charges at this stage. But theres much more to come. This is not the end of the road. Well bring you all as it happens. And irans president and foreign minister have been killed in a dramatic Helicopter Crash. Were asking, what does this mean for the region in the war in the middle east and for britain . Three enormous stories today and through it all, we want your views, comments and thoughts. Gbnews. Com forward slash. Your say is the way to get involved in the discussion. Yes, im interested to hear what you have to say about juuan what you have to say about Julian Assange. He will not be as it stands , extradited to the as it stands, extradited to the United States. What do you make of that judgement . Apparently it is on the grounds that he is not a us citizen, so therefore he may be discriminated against in the United States. And also on that freedom of speech factor, too. Exactly. So the precise issue here is that whilst the us was happy to give assurances that he would not be subject to the Death Penalty, the executive of the United States did not give assurances that he would be tried as a us citizen, would be tried as a us citizen, would be tried , i. E. With the protections tried, i. E. With the protections of the constitution above him. If hes being tried as a foreigner, as weve seen with many instances of foreigners being tried in the United States or in territories of the United States, including Guantanamo Bay , they do not have those amendments. The bill of rights, protecting them in the United States. So if hes not going to be treated as a us citizen, that means the First Amendment or even further later amendments, the fourth, etc, no longer apply to him. Its interesting if youve beenif its interesting if youve been if youre just joining us, we were outside the high court with ray addison, our reporter, and huge amounts of celebrations there. There are people that have been committed to this from the start who have backed Julian Assange throughout this all who will be feeling rather emotional today. As you can see, celebrating this. Others think he should be extradited to the United States. So do let us know. Gbnews. Com forward slash. Your say is the way to get in touch. But lets get your headunes touch. But lets get your headlines with tatiana. Emily. Thank you. The top stories this hour. The emily. Thank you. The top stories this hour. The infected stories this hour. The infected blood inquiry has found there was a deliberate destruction of documents by government officials , and the scandal could officials, and the scandal could have largely been avoided. The final report documented a catalogue of failures which had catastrophic consequences with patients knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection. Unacceptable risks of infection. More than 30,000 people were infected with hiv and hepatitis c infected with hiv and hepatitis c between 1970 and the early 1990s by contaminated blood products and transfusions. The inquiry also found children were used as objects for research, with the risks ignored at a Specialist School where boys were treated for haemophilia. Were treated for haemophilia. The inquirys chair, sir Brian Langstaff, says the damage is still happening. Deaths keep on happening. Week by week. What ive found is that that disaster was no accident. People put their trust in doctors and the government to keep them safe, and that trust was betrayed. And then the government compounded the agony by telling them that nothing wrong had been done, that theyd had the best available treatment, and that as soon as tests were available , they were tests were available, they were introduced. And both of those statements were untrue. Statements were untrue. Victims say theyve been waiting decades to be heard. Sometimes we felt like we were shouting into the wind dunng were shouting into the wind during these 40 years when we told people they didnt believe us, they said this wouldnt happenin us, they said this wouldnt happen in the uk , but today happen in the uk, but today proves that it can happen in the uk. And it did happen in the uk and i just feel validated and vindicated. Vindicated. I think everybody today has read of the, disasters that unfolded , and sir brian has been unfolded, and sir brian has been very thorough and, and has not minced his words. This was a systemic this was by government, by Civil Servants and by health care professionals. I think that really rocks what we think of as society and really challenges the fact , the really challenges the fact, the trust that we put in people to look after to us, do their best and protect us, none of that can we take for granted anymore. We take for granted anymore. To other news, Julian Assange has won a legal bid to bring an appeal against his extradition to the United States. The High Court Ruled that us assurances over his case were unsatisfactory, and he would get a full appeal hearing. The wikileaks founder faces prosecution in the United States over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose National Defence information , after the defence information, after the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the afghanistan and iraq wars. Mr assanges wife is calling on the us to drop what she says is a shameful. She says is a shameful. Case. In seven volumes, theres quite a lot of detail in it. What it comes to is this in families across the uk, people , families across the uk, people, adults and children were treated in hospital and at home with blood and blood products and that nhs treatment resulted in over 30,000 people being infected with viruses , which infected with viruses, which were life shattering. Over 3000 were life shattering. Over 3000 have already died and that number is climbing week by week. For everyone involved, the evidence given to this inquiry has been difficult to listen to , has been difficult to listen to, and thats the wrong word. Its hard for those centrally involved and it must have been hard for many. Observing but it has been much harder still for those who were recounting their own experiences or listening to stories which touched a nerve , stories which touched a nerve, which brought back memories they would rather have forgotten. But which they brought themselves to tell the inquiry because the truth was important to tell the harm that was done to people cannot adequately be put into words. Ive tried , but patients words. Ive tried, but patients parents watch their children suffer and in many cases die. Suffer and in many cases die. Children witnessed the decline and the death of one. Sometimes both parents and their lives were irrevocably altered. As a result. People had to care for their grievously ill partners or other family members , often at other family members, often at the expense of their own health and careers. Early on, the expense of their own health and careers. Early on, in particular, they had to do so whilst being shunned or worse, abused by neighbours , workmates, abused by neighbours, workmates, by people they had once thought of as their friends. Sometimes even by health professionals. Even by health professionals. The inquiry is not just investigating something which happened years ago, it is still happening. People still have to care for the after effects of what their loved ones still suffer. The grief, the trauma suffer. The grief, the trauma which all of those lost loved ones experienced continues to this day. The early treatments for hiv and hepatitis c were often worse than the illnesses themselves. The side effects unger, themselves. The side effects linger , and for a number of linger, and for a number of those infected with hepatitis c, the damage done over so many years to their liver has left them at risk of developing cancer and requiring liver transplants. Every aspect of transplants. Every aspect of their lives has been defined by their lives has been defined by their infections, childhood education, career, leisure, relationships , marriages, home relationships, marriages, home ownership, travel, finances , ownership, travel, finances, dreams and ambitions have been lost , relationships broken, true lost, relationships broken, true though each of these consequences is it really takes a person who has lived and is living with them to describe them in a way which brings home them in a way which brings home the full horror of what had happened. And thats why in this report , ive tried to record report, ive tried to record peoples experiences in some detail where i can, using their own words, their better than mine. Those experiences have mine. Those experiences have been central to this inquirys work and must be central to the response to this report. But i response to this report. But i could not record every individual story in this report. I hope, therefore, that the thousands of statements which speak to peoples suffering and endurance, which will remain accessible in the inquirys website, along with the transcripts and recordings of the oral evidence which the inquiry heard, will ensure that their voices and their pain are never forgotten and will move future listeners and readers as they have moved so many during this inquiry. This disaster was this inquiry. This disaster was not an accident. It. Not an accident. It. People put their faith in doctors and in the government to keep them safe. And their trust was betrayed. There are was betrayed. There are generally two elements to any major Public Inquiry. One backward looking what happened and why. The other forward looking what next . How do we stop it happening again . This inquiry is different. There is another third element to this inquirys terms of references. What was the response of government and others and authority to what had happened here . The nhs and successive governments compounded the agony by refusing to accept that wrong had been done. More than that, had been done. More than that, the government repeatedly maintained. Add that people maintained. Add that people received the best available treatment and that testing of blood donations began as soon as the technology was available and both claims were untrue that means that part of the what next . How do we stop it happening again is not only taking steps to meet any threat of future infection carried by blood or blood products or tissue. But how to ensure, as tissue. But how to ensure, as far as we can, that government responds to the citizens it serves, how shall i put this more appropriately in a way which reflects the true facts . Which reflects the true facts . To turn back to what the report says, then about why infections happened on such a scale over such a time, to so many people. Such a time, to so many people. The picture is a complex one, and the failings were multiple. First, governments, Blood Services doctors knew at least 80 years ago. Since the mid 80 years ago. Since the mid 19405, 80 years ago. Since the mid 1940s, that blood could transmit hepatitis, and that this was a significant disease which could lead to cirrhosis , liver lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, liver cancer and death. This was not something kept to the dusty libraries of academic knowledge. The consultant knowledge. The consultant adviser on blood transfusion to the chief medical officer wrote in 1946 that uses of plasma must be told that it is a potentially a potentially lethal fluid which should be used with discretion in a 1964 circular from the scottish home and Health Department said no transfusion should be undertaken unless the benefits outweigh the risks of hepatitis. One of the leading hepatitis. One of the leading transfusion directors used to write on the boards for students blood can kill. The risk was not blood can kill. The risk was not limited to hepatitis, but it included the risks of future unknown viruses and the light of that knowledge. You might expect action to be taken to reduce the risks which were known of, and a keen eye to be kept open in case new risks started to emerge. New risks started to emerge. What happened was not that , what happened was not that, tragically, the infections happened because those in authority doctors, the Blood Services and successive governments did not put Patient Safety first. They lost sight of what was known about the risks of viral infections from blood. Doctor knows best with such a strong belief that Health Departments did not issue guidance to kerb the unsafe use of blood and blood products , of blood and blood products, Decision Making on measures that could make blood and blood products safer was put off. Then dragged out unnecessarily and failed to reach clear and decisive conclusions. And patients were simply not given the information they needed to make fully informed decisions about their own treatments. As about their own treatments. As long ago as 1952, the World Health Organisation identified how to reduce the risks of transmitting hepatitis through blood and blood products. Uk medical and government advisers took a central part in this. There were four key measures highlighted by the World Health Organisation on which, despite its involvement in identifying them, the United Kingdom fell short. The first was the selection of donors , the second selection of donors, the second was restricting the size of the pools used to make plasma products. The third was treating plasma products, for example, with heat to reduce infection, and the fourth maintaining good records and reporting infections. Each of these is addressed in detail in the report, but i shall say a little more about some aspects of each of them. Now but the key point is that if we had followed the World Health Organisations advice , there would have been advice, there would have been fewer infections from blood and from blood products and fewer deaths. As to the selection of deaths. As to the selection of donors, everyone who received blood or products made from blood or products made from blood plasma depended on the quality of the donations, which ended up in their veins. Now, that depended on donors knowing your donor and the risks that might come with their blood is fundamental to any system of collecting blood. The blood used for transfusions and to make blood products in the uk was from british donors who could and should have been better selected. For instance, in 1975, selected. For instance, in 1975, the chief medical officer for england said the practice of collecting blood in prisons could continue , even though could continue, even though prisoners were known to have higher numbers of hepatitis infections , and this practice infections, and this practice was not ended in the uk until 1984. For instance , no real 1984. For instance, no real efforts were made to prevent those who choose intravenous drugs and who were therefore a higher risk of hepatitis from donating blood and, for instance, the steps taken to keep donors who are more likely to be incubating aids out of the donation chain were late in starting and when they finally began, were inadequate. As for began, were inadequate. As for pool sizes, the dangers of pooung pool sizes, the dangers of pooling plasma from many donors were established by the medical Research Council in 1944. The greater the number of donors to a pool, the greater the risk from it, because one infected nafion from it, because one infected nation could contaminate the whole pool. In 1951, the textbook that was then the bible of blood transfusion said the use of large pool plasma has, of course, been an abandoned. The course, been an abandoned. The use of only small pools lasted until after 1970, then , however, until after 1970, then, however, something extraordinary happened just as the long term seriousness of hepatitis became more and more apparent, the size of pools used to make uk blood products grew ever larger and larger. And with that, so too did the risk. Instead of reducing the risk, the uk was steadily increasing. It blood donors in the uk gave blood freely, purely for the good of other people. Unknown to them, and they deserve praise for that. By contrast , the blood that. By contrast, the blood suppued that. By contrast, the blood supplied in the United States was largely sold by people who needed the money. The hepatitis that gave rise to and the number of deaths that followed resulted in the us authorities banning sales of whole blood for transfusion. In 1973, but the us transfusion. In 1973, but the us authorities did not stop people selling their plasma to pharmaceutical companies to be made into blood products. Pharmaceutical companies to be made into blood products. In 1973, the uk Licensing Authority gave the green light to the importation and distribution of an american blood product and an austrian blood product, also made using paid donations. Despite the manufacturers making no secrets of the risks of hepatitis , they posed the hepatitis, they posed the Licensing Authority knew of the risks from sales of blood plasma from people who, and i quote, did not inspire confidence and were motivated by money. The Licensing Authority knew, too, that these products were made from very large pools. The risks of free of hepatitis were freely admitted by the makers. I have concluded that the uk was wrong to decide to license these products in 1973, and later decisions in the 1970s to grant further licenses for similar us products were also wrong. Those products were also wrong. Those products were also wrong. Those products should simply not have been permitted to be distributed generally in this country. Generally in this country. Despite the World Health Organisations reminder in 1952 of the importance of Record Keeping, poor Record Keeping has been a problem across many of the issues examined by the inquiry. This had an impact on safety. If you cant trace the safety. If you cant trace the source of his transfusion back to the donor who was infected, you cannot then tell and treat the donor and avoid any further donations from that source. Nor can you trace previous donations to check if other people who have had transfusions from the same source have, then become ill and reporting of infections. Did not have the priority. It should have done. For instance, at the height of the aids crisis, the north london Blood Transfusion Centre had to ask the Government Committee responsible for aids three times to arrange for the chief medical officer to ask doctors to find out if aids patients had previously donated blood. As previously donated blood. As well as the more rigorous selection of donors and until such time as direct tests, specific to hepatitis c and hiv were available , a further way of were available, a further way of reducing the chances that hepatitis c or hiv would get into the blood supply and be transfused was to test for certain markers in the blood , certain markers in the blood, which could help identify the donations that might be infected , and this was known as surrogate testing. The surrogate testing. The opportunity of this surrogate testing in the case of hiv was lost in respect of hepatitis c, taking a decision about it was put off, put off, and then delayed until it was simply too late. One doctor involved rightly described the process as going round in very small circles, some distance away from the target. Nearly four years the target. Nearly four years were lost during which the risks could have been very significantly reduced. The government was to claim in the 1990s that the direct test for these viruses were introduced as soon as the technology was available. That was wrong. In available. That was wrong. In the cases of each of the viruses. In case of hiv, a test had been developed by august 1984, but it was not introduced for the screening of blood donations until october 1985. It takes time to produce such a test in sufficient quantity to screen all blood donations and to check its reliability , but i to check its reliability, but i have concluded that we lost months for no clear reason, by delays and indecision when setting up a process to evaluate each available make of test, get a number where commercially available and being used elsewhere in the world. Patients receiving transfusions in the uk were needlessly exposed to the risk of hiv. As a result. Were needlessly exposed to the risk of hiv. As a result. In the case of hepatitis c, the delays were even worse. Screening of blood donations was not introduced until september 1991, even when a Screening Test was available and approved its use had to wait till all regions could introduce it on the same date. In other words, going at the pace of the slowest , where the pace of the slowest, where the pace of the slowest, where the government claimed that screening for hepatitis c had been introduced as soon as the technology became available, they ignored the long list of countries that introduced screening before the uk, japan , screening before the uk, japan, australia, france, luxembourg , australia, france, luxembourg, finland, the us, austria , the finland, the us, austria, the netherlands, canada, germany, belgium , switzerland, italy. Belgium, switzerland, italy. Shall i go on . Spain, norway , shall i go on . Spain, norway, sweden, portugal, cyprus, greece , hungary, iceland, malta and denmark 23. Just because the department of health hoped what they said was true , didnt mean they said was true, didnt mean to say it was. You might have to say it was. You might have thought that as soon as a Screening Test for hepatitis c was introduced across the board in september 1991, donors who were infected and might not have realised it could be identified and told, and that anyone who had previously been given their suspect blood could be traced and checked. Well, he would have been wrong. It took around four been wrong. It took around four years for there to be a general look back like this one. Transfusion director as doctor jack gillan edinburgh of south east scotland , thought south east scotland, thought this was so unethical that he arranged to conduct a lookback in his area. Arranged to conduct a lookback in his area. He had to call it a pilot study, but he wanted to do it and did it. His work deserves praise. Praise. Well, weve been hearing from the chair of the infected blood inquiry, sir Brian Langstaff. Hes been speaking in Central London about the outcome of all of this. Lets go now to our reporter, charlie peters. Reporter, charlie peters. Charlie, this is a really significant moment. Significant moment. Thats right. Tom. And we were just hearing so many of the missed chances to intervene and get a grip on this scandal. Throughout the early timeline of when it arose. And theyve been described as missed opportunities elsewhere. But the report is very clear that these misses were not accidental, that this was a deliberate failure in so many cases by not only major institutions like the nhs and the department of health, but also some specific individuals and one of the many concerns for the survivors and victims weve been hearing from today is that they want accountability. Part of that is compensation. Of course , but its also about prosecution. They want to justice be delivered. But so many of the people that were at the centre of causing this appalling scandal have now passed away. They have been deceased. And so its impossible to reach out there and achieve that significant amount of justice that they they have, demanding. That they they have, demanding. But also weve also heard from the report this morning about the report this morning about the year in which this inquiry was launched. 2017 Prime Minister theresa may brought it on, but it was revealed at 1230 today that there was sufficient Public Interest and evidence to launch this inquiry from 1986. And thats when hiv testing was regularly introduced. Boost was regularly introduced. Boost for donor blood. For hepatitis c, for donor blood. For hepatitis c, it for donor blood. For hepatitis c, it was introduced in 1991, but by then there was five more years of significant evidence pointing towards. This crisis. Pointing towards. This crisis. The report recommends that anyone who has had a blood transfusion after. 19 before transfusion after. 19 before 1996 should seek a test for hepatitis c. Its a simple finger prick method, but theyre calling on people to do that because of how many years that scandal had gone on. While that evidence was available. So the campaigners are asking for that. Justice as the interim report in 2022 recommended, significant compensation. It was a unexpected and unprecedented move for a report. An official inquiry to make a demand of the government at that time , and government at that time, and that was for £100,000 to be paid to some 4000 people who were involved in the scandal. But there is now. An enlarged call there is now. An enlarged call for compensation because its not only those who are directly affected, but also the parents and the children, because some children lost not only one but both of their parents. So many parents went on to infect their loved ones by virtue of doctors withholding information about hiv infection. So the network of those affected has expanded. Today charlie, a lot of us will be shocked by the scale of this scandal. The scale of the cover up to and of course, the scale of the harm you mentioned there. There may be scope for criminal prosecution. Do you imagine that the police will start investigating whats in this report . Well, there was, as the report has said , a deliberate, report has said, a deliberate, subtle, pervasive and chilling cover up here. It wasnt just the sort of direct orders that is typical in an institutional cover up , but is typical in an institutional cover up, but a widespread culture of this cant be known. Culture of this cant be known. Weve also heard about the deliberate destruction of documents itll be interesting to know whether the cps recommend charges if anyone is named in that process. And as the report has uncovered, some seven volumes, as we saw at the start of sir brians address there, more information will come to light on that. Were not expecting the Prime Minister to meet the families and victims today. In a potentially controversial move. Hell be addressing Parliament Later tonight and then making, interviews and meetings with those families tomorrow. But as more detail comes out, im sure there will be a significant pubuc there will be a significant public pressure for any named individuals remaining from this penod individuals remaining from this period to face some form of prosecution, because that is a key part of the justice that these campaigners are demanding. Well, charlie peters, thank you so much for bringing us the very latest there, on what is a momentous day for many, many people involved in this scandal. Yes, well bring you more reaction and more highlights from that speech , that powerful from that speech, that powerful speech being made by the chair of this inquiry. Speech being made by the chair of this inquiry. Coming up, of this inquiry. Coming up, were also going to bring you the latest from iran, where the president , the latest from iran, where the president , Ebrahim Raisi, and his foreign minister have been killed in a dramatic Helicopter Crash. What impact does this have on the region . And here thats to come after your headunes thats to come after your headlines with tatiana. Headlines with tatiana. Emily. Thank you. The top stories, the infected blood inquiry has found there was a deliberate destruction of documents by government officials in the scandal could have largely been avoided. And have largely been avoided. And the final report documented a catalogue of failures which had catastrophic consequences with patients knowingly exposed to unacceptable risks of infection. Unacceptable risks of infection. More than 30,000 people were infected with hiv and hepatitis c infected with hiv and hepatitis c between 1970 and the early 1990s by contaminated blood products and transfusions. The inquirys chair, sir Brian Langstaff , says the damage is langstaff, says the damage is still happening. Lets keep on happening week by week. What ive found is that that disaster was no accident. That disaster was no accident. People put their trust in doctors and the government to keep them safe and that trust was betrayed. And then the government compounded the agony by telling them that nothing wrong had been done, that theyd had the best available treatment, and that as soon as tests were available , all they tests were available, all they were introduced. And both of those statements were untrue. Those statements were untrue. Julian assange has won a legal bid to bring an appeal against his extradition to the United States. The high court United States. The High Court Ruled that us assurances over his case were unsatisfactory, and he would get a full appeal hearing. The wikileaks founder faces prosecution in the United States over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose National Defence information. After the publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the afghanistan and iraq wars. Iran has confirmed iraq wars. Iran has confirmed the countrys president , Ebrahim Raisi, and his foreign minister were killed in a Helicopter Crash. Footage obtained by iranian media shows. The crash site on a mountainside. Harsh weather conditions hampered efforts by search teams, but the wreckage was eventually located in the East Azerbaijan province. In the East Azerbaijan province. Irans Supreme Leader has declared five days of National Mourning. An election for a new mourning. An election for a new president is due to take place in the next 50 days. And for the latest stories, sign up to gb news alerts by scanning the qr code on your screen or go to gb news. Carmelites. All right. Its 236. And coming up at 3 00, as always, is Martin Daubney martin. Absolutely huge news day for us today. What have you got coming up . Up . Yeah. Yeah. Furthering your excellent coverage of the infected blood scandal inquiry, ill also be joined by victims and family members who lost relatives in this scandal, as well as campaigners to say is this enough . Should it go further . Can justice ever be done . Ill also look over again at the situation in ireland. Situation in ireland. Crazy scenes over there. Crazy scenes over there. The irish taoiseach says that he he wants to recognise the palestinian state by the end of the month. But do locals care well what they really care about is a story im going to cover today, where locals turned around a planned caravan park for asylum seekers. They blockaded the road and stopped it. Going ahead, ill be joined by an activist who was there. Plus a new report out shows that waless controversial 20 mile an hour blanket ban did absolutely nothing to cut air pollution. Ill be joined by a by a senedd shadow transport minister, and ill be asking them was the entire thing just the cash cow . Entire thing just the cash cow . Thats all. Coming 3 to 6 pm. Sounds really interesting , martin. I suppose on this 20 mile an hour issue it stands to reason, doesnt it . You force cars to go slower much more, much more pollutant will be getting out for the same amount of time. Yeah. And the cars are in a lower gear and a lower gear puts higher revs. It churns out more pollution. Its almost, tom like nobody thought this through. All they wanted to do instead was find the motorist once again. But hopefully the entire thing will get junked and well have a return to common sense. Return to common sense. Well, no one is going to want to miss your show coming up, martin. Great stuff. See you at three. Excellent. Well, are we going to take a little quick break now . No, were going to talk about juuan no, were going to talk about Julian Assange , who has won his Julian Assange, who has won his bid at the high court to bring an appeal against his extradition to the United States. Well, the wikileaks founder faced High Court Judges today in a long running legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States. Now, this has been going on for more than 13 years, ray addison is here for us outside the high court, ray, youre reporting earlier. Lots of celebration. Are those people still there . Still there . A large amount of them are still here. However the majority of the organisers have now moved on. They said they were off to the pub to celebrate, so theyve taken down the stage and theyve headed off. Weve got some people just off camera to my right hand side who are, dancing and, singing on the microphone. A number of people still here, however , the vast majority have however, the vast majority have now moved off to continue their celebrations elsewhere. And of course, it is a really big, important day for the supporters of Julian Assange. He had been seeking permission to appeal that extradition to the United States and the high court. Here, the judges had sought assurances from the us attorney general that assange would receive a fair trial if he was removed from this country. Now, it hinged on three things. Firstly would he be subject to the Death Penalty . Secondly would he be able to use the First Amendment, the right to freedom of speech as part of his defence . And secondly, would he be under newly, dealt with because he is not a us citizen . Now, on the issue of the Death Penalty , the issue of the Death Penalty, the judges rejected that argument from Julian Assanges legal team. However, they did accept that the two concerns on the issue of freedom of speech and the issue of his nationality, and it kind of hinged with a comment that was, put forward by the kc comment that was, put forward by the kc representing the United States, which said that that mr assange could seek to use the First Amendment in his defence when extradite did not, that it would be necessarily accepted by whichever judge would be necessarily accepted by whicheverjudge ended up hearing his case. And that seems to be a really, really crucial distinction, which the judges have decided to give further attention when they have a full heanng attention when they have a full hearing for this appeal. Now, as hearing for this appeal. Now, as you were saying, much celebration down here, hundreds of supporters, including Julian Assanges wife stella , she spoke assanges wife stella, she spoke on the steps outside the royal courts of justice after that verdict. This is what she had to say after the judges reached the right decision. We spent a long time hearing the United States putting lipstick on a pig, but the judges did not buy it. The United States should read the situation and drop this case now. Now is the moment to do it. Just abandon this shameful attack on journalists , on the attack on journalists, on the press and the public that has been going on for 14 years. Now, of course, through wikileaks, Julian Assange is accused of releasing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents and that they said the us says caused severe problems for their sources and their agents. However, now his supporters are saying that President Biden needs to stop this case and they should free juuan this case and they should free Julian Assange for good. Really fascinating, ray . Ray addison, youve been outside the high court for us. Thank you very much indeed. This is such an interesting case because i wasnt expecting it to go this way for Julian Assange today, particularly as all of these assurances have been given by the United States on the Death Penalty. But clearly, it was one not on the Death Penalty, but on those other issues that he wont be treated as a United States citizen and therefore wont get the protection of the United States constitution. Yeah. Just looking at the inbox of gbnews. Com yoursay, lots of strong feelings about this. Id strong feelings about this. Id say the majority think that juuan say the majority think that Julian Assange probably should have been extradited to the United States. But there are those who believe that this is a matter of freedom, of the press and that hes been wrongly, wrongly accused. And yet, did he do the work of a journalist when he dumped all of that data without any retractions, without sifting through it was a data dump onune through it was a data dump online of classified information. Now a journalist might well have read through that information and decided what was in the Public Interest to publish and withheld what might have endangered peoples lives or wasnt in the Public Interest. This was a data dump rather than rather than any sort of journalistic work. And so i do wonder when people say, this is a journalist whos being pursued by a state, is it really . Well, 7 well, thats the question thatis well, thats the question that is a very important question to ask. Dumping information. Not really. The same as investigative journalism. Is it really . Were journalism. Is it really . Were going to park this for one moment. Well be back after the break talking about the very latest from iran. The president killed in a catastrophic Helicopter Crash well, its 246. Youre watching and listening to good afternoon, britain. Now, as weve been britain. Now, as weve been reporting, Ebrahim Raisi, irans president and his foreign minister have been killed in a catastrophic Helicopter Crash. Yes. Harsh weather conditions made it difficult for search teams to find the wreckage, but it was eventually located in the East Azerbaijan province of iran. Yes, there has been no evidence so far of foul play. And irans Supreme Leader has declared five days of National Mourning. An election for a new president is due to take place in the next 50 days. Well joining us now for this is the spokesman for the peoples Mojahedin Organisation of iran, an opposition group, is shaheen gerbaldi shaheen. Thank you so much for making the time for us today, firstly, whats the reaction of people within in iran to this news . Good afternoon, well, understanding that Ebrahim Raisi was known in iran as the butcher of tehran because of his direct role in massacring 30,000 Political Prisoners back in 1988, when he was deputy prosecutor of iran, 90 of the victims were members and activists of the peoples Mojahedin Organisation of iran, who were incarcerated and serving terms in iranian prison already, so there was a tremendous loathe and hatred for raisi. As i said , whose nickname raisi. As i said, whose nickname was bucha tehran. And when he was bucha tehran. And when he was a, head of the judiciary in iran back in 2019, also played a very active role in suppressing the peoples protests and killing 1500 other protesters. So in that light , the mood in so in that light, the mood in iran is joy and happiness. Obviously, on the other hand, for the regime and particularly for the regime and particularly for ali khamenei, the regime Supreme Leader, the mood is devastation because one has to bearin devastation because one has to bear in mind that this was a strategic and monumental, irreparable blow to khamenei and the regime in its entirety. So you have two poles in iran. People are very happy, jubilant. People are very happy, jubilant. And obviously khamenei and his retinue are very, very devastated about what happened. And shahin, do you believe this to be an accident . There are no reports so far of any foul play, do you do you believe that to be true as well . An accident . Well , so accident . Well, so far all the accident . Well , so far all the facts well, so far all the facts point to that direction. But i think whats more important, as i said, is what does it mean for iran today . And what does it mean for the future of iran and its consequences . I think, to be honest with you, this is the bigger issue. And this is the bigger issue. And this is the bigger question and these consequences, first of all, the matter of succession, the current, ayatollah is 85 years old, people are obviously thinking about who is next in line for that Supreme Leader job. And now , the person who was job. And now, the person who was presumed to take on that role is dead. Well, thats one issue, but i think the regime is facing more pressing issues. The clerical regime or the ruling theocracy has been facing massive uprisings in iran for the past six, seven years. I mean, to be exact, four major nationwide uprisings involving people from all walks of life and all social strata, in big cities and small cities. I strata, in big cities and small cities. I stood strata, in big cities and small cities. I stood up strata, in big cities and small cities. I stood up against the regime calling for regime change, overthrowing the regime , change, overthrowing the regime, and establish a democratic, secular republic. So actually, the reason how many installed and handpicked Ebrahim Raisi as the president was this, that in 2018 and 2019, there were massive , massive uprisings in massive, massive uprisings in iran. How many propped up raisi as a part of the strategy to stop this way, basically sending a message that the killer now is at the helm and purges were happenedin at the helm and purges were happened in the Iranian Parliament in basically all rank and file to make the regime as unipolar as possible, to stand up against the iranian people and their move. And now, with and their move. And now, with raisi gone, what does that mean . Raisi gone, what does that mean . That means that khameneis strategy is basically , is strategy is basically, is squashed. He has to start from all over again. And this comes at a time that the regime is facing all sorts of crisis from within and internationally. So within and internationally. So basically, the regime would be very much more or less ruptured from within, and that would make it much weaker. So as a result, khamenei has two options. One one is to open up, you know, make some, concessions to the people, which obviously will only expedite its overthrow and will encourage people to be even more steadfast in their desire to overthrow the regime or to rely more on repression at home and belligerence, and warmongering , in the region, as warmongering, in the region, as we have seen in the past few months, and also to drive to acquire nuclear weapons. And most likely, khamenei will choose the latter. So in that sense, as i said, the regime will come out much weaker, but at the same time, much more belligerent and much more repressive to prevent its downfall. And that is the big risk when a regime becomes unstabilized. And weve seen these sorts of protests, i think three national protests, i think three national protests, as you say, now with increasingly harsh crackdowns, inflation on into 40, 50, really, really high inflation, standard of living going down, not up. Helicopters that cant fly in, bad weather. When you get all of this put together, you get more erratic regimes, regimes that are perhaps less predictable. And weve seen whats going on with the houthis, whats going on with hezbollah, how this spills out into wider instability in the region, affecting all of us is the risk now that with this instability at the top of iran, that therell be wider regional, perhaps even global instability . Perhaps even global instability . Well, i think, the, the clerical regime from its inception has survived on two pillars. One is repression at home over the past 40 plus years, it has executed more than 120,000 activists. Think for a moment 120,000 activists for democracy and human rights. As i said, overwhelming majority of them on the peoples Mojahedin Organisation of iran. And yet organisation of iran. And yet people are still coming, in big numbers and bigger numbers for protests from all walks of life and all age groups, and also for regional, as you said, creating havoc and warmongering belligerence. And as the regime has got weaker inside the country, it has relied more on the other leg, so to speak, so to that effect , in order to the other leg, so to speak, so to that effect, in order to deal with this regime, the west needs to adopt a very decisive policy, a policy that is not based on appeasement, which has been the case for the past, you know, for decades. Rather on decisiveness. What does that mean to stand up on the side of the people, the desire for regime change, for freedom and democracy, and to take concrete steps. Now, these are steps basically means , first are steps basically means, first of all, to proscribe the revolutionary guards , the main revolutionary guards, the main entity for repression and terrorism inside iran. And outside of iran as a terrorist entity, impose much tougher sanctions on the regime and also recognise the rights of the iranian people and resistance units. So were going to have to leave it there. Weve run to the end of the houn weve run to the end of the hour, but thank you so much for putting across your case. Really appreciate it. Well, this has been us here on good afternoon britain. Tom and emily dont go anywhere. Its Martin Daubney up next. Were back at 12 tomorrow. With a brighter outlook. With boxt solar sponsors of weather on. Gb news. On. Gb news. Afternoon. Welcome to your latest weather update from the met office here on gb news. For many , staying fine through the many, staying fine through the rest of today, but there are 1 or 2 showers breaking out and a few thunderstorms across Northern Ireland. Were surrounded by weather systems and were kind of in a weather no mans land, which means the winds are light, which means the cloud isnt shifting too much over parts of southern scotland , over parts of southern scotland, Northern England, and the showers are fairly slow moving over the west of Northern Ireland. Some rumbles of thunder here could drop a lot of rain in a short space of time. There is a short space of time. There is a met Office Warning in place. For many, it will be a dry evening and night though, and then later in the night well see some wet weather returning to parts of central and eastern england, staying generally pretty mild double digits, but some a bit colder across parts of scotland. Inland here with some clearer spells. Well down into single figures. Wont stay clear, though. On the east coast were going to see the haar returning. I suspect, particularly to the coast of aberdeenshire and up across the northern isles. So another murky day on tuesday, but inland, plenty of sunshine at least to start the day. And that will soon lift the temperatures quite cloudy for Northern Ireland. Here again during the course of tomorrow, the likelihood of some heavy, thundery showers breaking out , but of a heavy, thundery showers breaking out, but of a dull, damp start over the north midlands. Parts of northeast england. Some showery rain here again, 1 or 2 heavier bursts possible that will tend to drift its way up towards the manchester area and towards the manchester area and towards north wales also. Then later in the day well look at more outbreaks of showery rain coming into east anglia and the south east. Possibility of 1 or 2 thunderstorms in South West England during tuesday afternoon. And again, that risk of thunderstorms for Northern Ireland. And again we have another met Office Yellow warning in place. Much of western scotland stays dry and fine temperatures generally a little bit lower tomorrow because there will be more cloud around, especially over the midlands. So you will notice that dip in temperatures after a warm day today onto tuesday evening, well start to see a bit more rain coming into the east. And thats a feature of the weather through the rest of the weather through the rest of the week. Some heavy rain, likely over parts of central and eastern britain on wednesday and thursday. Thursday. That warm feeling inside from boxt boilers, sponsors of weather on gb news. Away. A very good afternoon to you. And a happy monday. Its 3 pm. And a happy monday. Its 3 pm. And welcome to the Martin Daubney show on gb news broadcasting live from the heart of westminster and all across the uk. On todays show, the inquiry into the infected blood scandal that cost 3000 lives has been published. Finally today, its been called a chilling, systemic 40 year cover up. On todays show, ill speak to campaigner victims and their family members. Plus, later on the show, well hear from the Prime Minister, rishi sunak, whos expected to apologise now. Early today, free speech campaigner Julian Assange won a bid to bring appeal against an extradition to the us. His supporters have called it the most significant breakthrough since his case began. Well have all the latest from the high court and theres yet more chaos in ireland , as premier simon in ireland, as premier simon harris has vowed to recognise the palestinian state by the end of may. Meanwhile, local and cool are forced a migrant camp to be abandoned after they formed a blockade. Well speak to a man on the ground who was there and thats all coming up next in your next hour. Well, next in your next hour. Well, the show always a delight to