A long-awaited decision on payouts for victims of pleural plaques will be made within days – but a union fears it will be a “betrayal of working class people”.

Construction union UCATT fears the Government will use a new medical report from the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council which rejected paying compensation as an excuse to betray sufferers.

Bradford North Labour MP Terry Rooney, other MPs and unions have repeatedly called for action after the House of Lords ruled in 2007 that sufferers of the disease, which can be an indicator of fatal asbestosis, were no longer entitled to compensation.

The Government will make its announcement before recess on Tuesday, July 21.

Mr Rooney said: “If this speculation proves true it is completely outrageous and unacceptable. I will be looking for Jack Straw on Monday to let him know how I feel and how my constituents feel. We are not having this.”

Alan Ritchie, general secretary of UCATT, said: “UCATT has learned that the Government is preparing to betray pleural plaques victims and deny them the right to compensation and legal redress. If the Government does announce that plaques victims will no longer be compensated, it must be understood this is a complete betrayal of working class people.

“This report is, we fear, going to be a smokescreen to justify the Government refusing compensation.”

UCATT believes the Government will pay £5,000 to all 6,500 victims whose cases are on hold after the ruling. However, once that money is paid there will no compensation paid to anyone who develops pleural plaques in future.

It is also believed the Government will use a fraction of the £350 million set aside to pay plaques liabilities to establish a non-statutory register of exposure to asbestos.

The majority of sufferers get mesothelioma from working in shipyards, coal mines or on building sites.

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