MP Anne Marie Morris was part of 22 Tories that rebelled against the government to deliver the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak his first defeat in the House of Commons. 

The vote was on an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill which will speed up the compensation process for victims of the infected blood scandal. 

The government will now be legally obliged to set up a body to administer compensation within three months of the bill becoming law.

The vote only narrowly passed by 246 votes to 242. It was the government’s first defeat in the House of Commons on a whipped vote since the 2019 general election.

Now the subject of an inquiry, the scandal, took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when almost 5,000 people with the blood-clotting disorder haemophilia were given blood that was donated – or even sold – by people with HIV and hepatitis C.

Previously, the government has stated that there was a ‘moral case for the payment of compensation’, but that they would wait for the outcome of the inquiry before making any payments. 

MP Anne Marie Morris, said: ‘It is only right that final compensation payments be made as soon as possible to the victims of the infected blood scandal. 

‘There is a moral case to do so, one person dies on average every four days. These people can no longer wait for justice.

‘I am proud to have supported the amendment last night, ensuring a compensation framework will be established 3 months after the Bill receives royal assent and passes into law.’