Give justice to victims; MPs give campaign backing.

Byline: By WILLIAM GREEN Political Editor

THE Chronicle campaign for justice for asbestos victims has won support in Parliament.

A House of Lords ruling overturned a decades-old right for workers to be compensated for deadly industrial diseases.

The decision has left victims of pleural plaques no longer entitled to a penny in redress.

But the Chronicle is calling on the Government to overturn the order and give sufferers of the asbestos linked condition the help they deserve.

And the campaign has now been boosted by a Commons motion signed by North East MPs.

Jarrow MP Stephen Hepburn tabled the motion backing the campaign and urged ministers to come up with speedy help for victims.

Blaydon MP Dave Anderson, Houghton and Washington East's Fraser Kemp and Tyne Bridge MP David Clelland have also backed the Parliamentary motion.

The motion "warmly endorses the campaign by the respected Newcastle Evening Chronicle to urge the Government to end a compensation scandal which has left a forgotten generation facing a bleak future" following the ruling in the Lords.

Ian McFall, head of asbestos policy at Thompsons Solicitors, said thousands of people in the North East negligently exposed to asbestos suffered harm and deserve to be recognised.

The Commons motion also "joins with the Chronicle in calling on the Government to overturn the ruling and give sufferers of the asbestos-linked condition the help they deserve".

According to Government figures, more than 85 people a year die of asbestos related diseases in the North East.

Thousands more have developed pleural plaques, a permanent scarring of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos, associated with increased risk of contracting killer diseases like lung cancer or mesothelioma.

Most sufferers were exposed to asbestos when working in shipyards or factories at a time when employers were aware of the harmful effects, but did nothing.

CAPTION(S):

COMMONS SUPPORT: Stephen Hepburn tabled the motion