FORMER MP and germ war 'guinea pig' Terry Lewis has hailed Labour's pledge to compensate Britain's forgotten nuclear test veterans.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told delegates at the party's Brighton conference this week that its election manifesto will include a pledge to pay a £50,000 lump sum to the estimated 1,500 ex-servicemen still alive.
Mr Lewis, Labour MP for Worsley from 1983 to 2005, praised the promise to compensate military personnel exposed to radiation in nuclear testing in 1950s nuclear tests without their knowledge.
The 83-year-old, himself exposed to germ warfare tests at Porton Down when a 19-year-old soldier, said: "This long overdue.
"These veterans have been ignored for too long by all governments.
"I had one who lived in Astley who is long gone who deserved some compensation.
"These veterans did not know what they we being exposed to. I have sympathy having been involved in the Porton Down tests."
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