Nick with Mary Glindon at the launch of the Northern TUC Asbestos Support Group

The Northern TUC Asbestos Support Group was launched today by Nick Brown and North Tyneside MP Mary Glindon.

At their base in the Wallsend People’s Centre, North Tyneside, the Asbestos Support Group will provide advice and guidance for the growing number of workers in the region suffering from asbestos related illnesses such as mesothelioma, pleural plaques and asbestosis. 

The already high number of asbestos-poisoning victims in the North East is set to rise steeply over the next few years as the true scale of exposure is revealed, making groups like this one increasingly significant and relevant.

Nick Brown said: “This is an important initiative by the TUC. The support group offers practical help and advice to the victims of one of the great scandals of our age. Asbestosis is a remorseless killer. We should  stand up for the victims, conduct more medical research to prolong victims’ lives, safeguard future generations from exposure, and make the guilty employers and their insurers pay compensation.”

Nick has been a long standing advocate of asbestos victims, and has pushed to reverse a 2007 House of Lords judgement that denied justice to Pleural Plaques victims.

Nick speaking at last year's GMB-run Parliamentary lobby

Following Nick’s campaign to get justice for the victims of pleural plaques, the Government is today announcing a package of help for the people diagnosed with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases.

The vast majority of victims of asbestos-related diseases are concentrated in old industrial areas like the North East. Nick has been campaigning to get justice for sufferers for a long time, going right back to his days as the legal officer at the GMB in the early 1980s. There is still more to be done to help those who develop pleural plaques in the future, but today’s announcement is a good result for working people in communities such as our own.

The package announced today includes measures that will speed up the way mesothelioma claims are dealt with, so that sufferers and their families receive what they are entitled to more quickly. Sufferers of mesothelioma will see welfare payments increase above inflation and payments to bereaved families will be raised by up to £5,000.

Today’s announcement also introduces a £5000 payment to those individuals who had made claims for compensation for pleural plaques prior to the Law Lords ruling in October 2007. This will benefit over 6,000 people. Details of how the scheme will work are being published on the Ministry of Justice website at www.justice.gov.uk/about/pleural-plaques.htm.

Nick has been campaigning on this ever since the Law Lords decision two years ago, and the Evening Chronicle is also running a campaign which has been backed by all Labour MPs in the North East. Yesterday’s decision shows that this support spreads to the rest of the country as well.

Nick Brown said “I am really pleased at the progress made by the Bill yesterday, and it shows that the House of Commons is taking this seriously. I am a long term supporter of the campaign for justice for people with pleural plaques and, while this is not yet the battle won, it is a solid step in the right direction.”

There are further details in the Chronicle here.

Before my election to Parliament I worked in Newcastle as the GMB’s legal officer. Our Union took forward pioneering legal cases for the victims of asbestos induced diseases. 

I have been fighting hard within Government to have the Law Lords’ latest decision overturned. The consultation is potentially a victory for persistent trade union campaigning and a victory for the people of the North East. 

Pleural plaques result directly from a person’s exposure to asbestos by breathing in asbestos dust. The condition can be a pre-cursor to mesothelioma, a wasting disease that is fatal. I have made my feelings known within Government about this – it is a regional issue, and it is also a class issue.

It is a regional issue because the victims are concentrated largely in the old industrial areas like our own. It is most prevalent amongst communities that were dependent on the ship-building, ship-repair, heavy industry and thermal insulation sectors.

It is also a class issue, in as much as the victims are overwhelmingly manual workers and their immediate families.

The Government’s consultation closes on October 1^st, and I will be working hard throughout the summer to encourage as many of my constituents as possible to take part, and to make known the strength of feeling over this in the North East. If you would like to give the Government your views the consultation can be found on the Ministry of Justice website, or please get in touch with my office for more details.