Hundreds Lobby MPs to Over Rule Plaques Decision
On the 29th January, hundreds of pleural plaques sufferers, led by the GMB trade union, met with MPs to demand that Parliament over rules the Law Lords’ decision to end compensation for pleural plaques. Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary, and Alan Ritchie, UCATT general secretary, told MPs that some branches of their unions had been decimated by asbestos disease. Their members who suffered from pleural plaques watched with dismay as their colleagues who also had pleural plaques developed the fatal cancer, mesothelioma. They lived in fear of suffering the same fate. Dozens of MPs attended the lobby to give their support, including Minister Nick Brown MP, George Henderson MP, Mick Clapham MP. They are to arrange a meeting with the Prime Minister to urge a change in the law to remedy this latest injustice affecting asbestos victims.