To Prime Minister Boris Johnson,

In June this year you made history as the first Prime Minister to meet with Britain’s nuclear test veterans and their families, to look them in the eye and listen to their stories. You promised to deliver justice, and ordered your officials to resolve their long battle for official recognition.

It was hoped you could meet the campaigners again, to announce your decision on medallic recognition and a national service of commemoration at Westminster Abbey in the short-term, with further scientific research, educational provision, and war pension reform, considered in the longer-term.

But less than a month after veteran John Morris, his granddaughter Laura, and descendants Steve Purse, Alan Owen and Laura Jackson met you and your team in your Parliamentary office, you were forced to resign.

The meeting with which you made history is now at risk of being consigned to a footnote, another lost opportunity to end the longest-running scandal in our island story.

The new Prime Minister will be sworn in on September 5. As you will recall, the 70th anniversary of the first bomb test falls on October 3. While both contenders for your role have followed your lead in backing a medal and other recognition, this delay is proving costly for the veterans and their families.

Due to their age and complex health problems, one of these mistreated heroes dies, on average, every week. They die with the same anger and disappointment as those who went before them, the same rage you witnessed when John told you about the death of his baby Steven, the same sorrow of Laura who lost her father and brother to the effects of radiation, and the same fear Steve still feels for the health of his son Sascha.

That cloud must be lifted soon, and you have the power to make it happen today.

We implore you, in your final weeks in post, to make a decision that will deliver meaningful recognition in time for the Plutonium Jubilee. It will be supported by your successor, your party, both houses of Parliament, and the nation as a whole. It will mean everything to these families.

This could be the last, and finest, thing you can do in office as Prime Minister. The clock is ticking for the nuclear veterans, and we look to you for justice.

Yours sincerely, the undersigned.