Minister is snubbed by families of RAF Nimrod crash victims

Published on Thursday 12 November 2009 21:22

BILL Rammell, the armed forces minister, was apparently snubbed yesterday after he flew to Moray to meet families of the servicemen from RAF Kinloss who died when their Nimrod spy plane exploded over Afghanistan.

The minister had travelled to the Moray base to meet widows and bereaved relatives following the publication last month of a highly critical independent report which blamed failings at the Ministry of Defence and private contractors for the crash in which 14 men died.

Mr Rammell met representatives of the majority of the families in London immediately following the publication of the damning report, but had promised to fly to Kinloss to meet relatives who were unable to attend the private talks in the capital.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Unfortunately, the families weren't able to attend the meeting for their own personal reasons.

"As far as I'm aware they said they were going to meet him (Mr Rammell]. If they didn't want to meet him it was their choice."

The spokesman added that Mr Rammell was also planning to meet a "large group" of Nimrod families in London on Monday.

The scheduled talks with Mr Rammell followed revelations that civil servants working for the Ministry of Defence had been paid 47 million in bonuses this year.

Angus Robertson, the MP for Moray and the SNP's defence spokesman, said the families of 14 service personnel killed when RAF Nimrod XV230 exploded in Afghanistan were still waiting, after three years, to have their compensation claims settled with the government.

He declared: "These bonuses for bureaucrats are especially hard to swallow when the bereaved families of service personnel are still waiting for compensation three years after they lost their loved ones."