Peer urges Gulf vaccinations inquiry

The case for a public inquiry into the health effects on British troops of vaccinations for the 1991 Gulf War was "compelling", according to a Labour peer.

Lord Morris, a political adviser to the Royal British Legion, said he would use a House of Lords debate to push the war veteran charity's campaign for a full investigation.

On the eve of Armistice Day, he said: "It is an extremely serious matter that 13 years after the conflict so many of our troops, some now terminally ill, still have medically unexplained illnesses.

"It has been frankly admitted that medical record keeping was abysmal and that an unlicensed vaccine was widely used on our troops.

"The MoD has made it quite clear in reply to my parliamentary question that it doesn't know which and how many vaccines were given to whom and when.

"The Royal British Legion has made a compelling case for a public inquiry that deserves a positive response."

The Legion has renewed its campaign following revelations about serious gaps in the medical records related to the immunisation programme in a parliamentary question that the Ministry of Defence took nine months to answer.

A string of further questions have now been tabled.

Director of Welfare Colonel Terry English said: "What we have found in the limited answers from the Government is worrying enough for us to have renewed our call for an urgent public inquiry.

"This issue needs to be brought out into the open. The Legion is taking the lead on behalf of the many 1990/91 Gulf War veterans, both those who are unwell and those who have no symptoms of ill health, who believe that Gulf War illnesses are attributable to the concentrated anti-biological weapons immunisation program and/or the requirement to take pyridostigmine bromide (known as NAPS) tablets as an antidote to attacks on the nervous system."

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