IN this week’s column, Warrington North Labour MP Charlotte Nichols discusses the infected blood scandal.

Warrington Guardian readers may have seen this week that the Government suffered its first Commons defeat since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister.

This was on a very important issue that affects a number of my constituents who have been victims of the infected blood scandal.

Readers will remember that in the 1970s and 1980s tens of thousands of people were given contaminated blood products.

This included people with haemophilia who were infected with hepatitis C and HIV from imported Factor 8 treatment which was supplied by the NHS. The infected blood Inquiry set up by Theresa May in 2017 found that thousands of people had needlessly died as a result of this and that someone affected by infected blood dies every 4 days.

The government has accepted the moral case for compensation payments, however it has been dragging its feet and in the meantime victims are still dying without justice – the inquiry chairman himself has already given his final recommendations on compensation and has stated that a full compensation scheme should be set up immediately without waiting for his process to reach its end.

So I am delighted that on Monday the Commons passed a Labour amendment to set up an arms-length body, chaired by a High Court judge, to administer the compensation scheme within three months.

This should not have been a political matter, and I am grateful that 22 Conservative MPs rebelled to do the right thing.

I am currently away from Westminster with the Business and Trade Select Committee so ensured that I was paired with a Conservative so that our non-votes balanced out – but I was a signatory to the amendment and have advocated for justice for those infected and affected by infected blood both in speeches and questions in the House.

For my constituents who have been affected – either themselves or as family members – I hope that this is finally progress to get the justice that you deserve.

It still needs to be agreed by the House of Lords, and I hope that the Government will now stop trying to block this righting of a wrong, and put its energy behind delivering justice at last.