Sir Brian Langstaff, the unlikely hero of Britain’s tainted blood scandal
A lawyer may seem an unlikely hero, but for many infected blood victims that is exactly how they see the author of the damning final report of the public inquiry, Sir Brian Langstaff.
The former Supreme Court judge was appointed chair of the Contaminated Blood Inquiry on February 8, 2018 and has spent the intervening six years painstakingly collecting documents and evidence.
On Monday his big moment came when he took the stage, surrounded by more than 1,000 victims and their families in the great Central Hall in Westminster, and told them to a standing ovation what they had been waiting for almost 50 years: “This disaster was no accident. People put their trust in doctors and the government to protect them – and their trust was betrayed.”
The soft-spoken former judge turned around the room, where many of the victims stood, wearing red T-shirts with slogans such as “tainted blood, die for justice,” and asked them to applaud everyone who had contributed to the report and their shared stories.
It is this humility that has characterized his approach to research. Langstaff refused to have the investigation named after him, preferring to keep the focus on the victims.
As a QC he specialized in clinical negligence and was chairman and president of the Personal Injuries Bar Association.
He was born in 1948 and educated at George Heriot’s school in Edinburgh and at Cambridge University. He was called to the Bar in 1971 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1994.
In addition to an interest in sports, current affairs, food and travel, Langstaff also lists lawn mowing and bell ringing as personal passions in his Who’s Who profile.
Victims and families have praised him for his compassion and his willingness to hold those in power accountable for their role in the scandal.
The final report is not the first time he has done this. When Rishi Sunak appeared before the inquiry, Langstaff received a round of applause from the audience for challenging him directly over delays to the compensation scheme.
Langstaff urged the Prime Minister to do all he can “to reassure them, preferably by action rather than words – but both will do – preferably actions, that there will be compensation that is just and is fair and that it will be delivered as soon as possible. Because if it offends my conscience, I would think it would offend the conscience of a caring government, and you have said you would like to be one.”
Langstaff has been working full-time on the investigation since 2018 and has retired from his role at the Supreme Court, where he was appointed in 2005. There he was president of the Labor Court of Appeal between 2012 and 2018.
This is not the first health-related public inquiry Langstaff has been involved in. He worked on the Bristol Royal Infirmary inquiry, which was set up in 1998 to investigate the deaths of 29 babies during heart surgery in the late 1980s and early 1990s.