MPs were voting on a plan to set up a compensation scheme for infected blood scandal victims.
Image source, PA MediaThe UK government has lost a vote on a plan to set up a compensation scheme for the victims of the NHS infected blood scandal.
Tory MPs voted with Labour to back an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
It requires the government to establish a “body to administer the compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal” within three months of the bill passing.
MPs cheered at the result of the vote.
It is the first defeat in the House of Commons on a whipped vote since the last general election in 2019.
The government has said there is a moral case for compensating victims of the scandal.
It has agreed to make the first interim payments of £100,000 each to 4,000 surviving victims and bereaved partners.
However, the government said it wanted to wait for the infected blood inquiry to conclude before setting up a full scheme.
Earlier this year, Sir Brian Langstaff, who is chairing the inquiry, called for a full compensation scheme to be set up immediately. He also said it should be widened to include orphaned children and parents who lost children.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, up to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood products.
More than 3,000 people died after contracting HIV or hepatitis C after receiving a blood transfusion on the NHS or a treatment made from contaminated blood.
Sir Brian’s inquiry had been due to publish a final report in November, but has been pushed back to March 2024.