Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly has said he is “impressed and pleased” that an inquiry will be launched into the contaminated blood scandal.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced yesterday (Tuesday) that the far-reaching inquiry would establish the causes of the “appalling injustice that took place in the 1970s and 1980s. The scandal, that resulted from NHS patients being given contaminated blood, some of which had been donated by US prisoners, infected with hepatitis C and HIV, left 2,400 people dead.

Mr Djanogly, speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, said: “I have been really impressed and pleased that the Government have thought this issue through afresh, which is significant, given the previous inquiries and many debates on it. Many of the people who were badly affected have not been catered for to date. They include constituents of mine whose father was infected and who died. They ended up in a children’s home and their lives have been totally devastated, yet they are not within this process.”

Many of those affected and their families believe they were not told of the risks involved and there was a cover-up. A recent parliamentary report found about 7,500 patients were infected by imported blood products.

Liz Carroll, chief executive of The Haemophilia Society, has said: “The government has for decades denied negligence and refused to provide compensation to those affected, this inquiry will finally be able to properly consider evidence of wrongdoing.”

Sir Peter Bottomley, co-chairman of the cross-party parliamentary group on haemophilia and contaminated blood, said the success of the inquiry would lie in it being able to get hold of sensitive information.

“It must have powers to get documents from pharmaceutical companies and government,” he said.