A HAEMOPHILIAC campaigner is to meet Health Minister Lord Hunt over calls for a public inquiry into contaminated blood.

Carol Grayson has been invited to meet the minister after a campaign on behalf of haemophiliacs who have contracted HIV and hepatitis C through NHS blood products.

However, the move comes after the Government rejected fresh calls for an inquiry and compensation for victims during a House of Lords debate.

Ms Grayson, who lives in Newcastle and whose partner is infected with HIV and hepatitis C, said the proposal to arrange a meeting marked a shift in attitude from the Government.

She said: "They have always said they would not meet me before, but hopefully this shows they are at least taking notice of what we are doing."

She said she was disappointed with the Government's response to calls for an inquiry during the Lords debate.

She said: "The whole thing is a whitewash and I feel very strongly that it is absolutely essential to have a public inquiry."

She said if the Government continued to refuse to hold an inquiry, campaigners would have no choice but to pursue legal action, a move which has already seen two senior health officials jailed in France.

Labour peer Lord Morris of Manchester, president of the Haemophilia Society, told the House of Lords that the failure to hold a public inquiry into a disaster on this scale was unprecedented.

However, Government whip Lord Burlison said a public inquiry was not likely to provide a satisfactory answer to the infection of haemophiliacs.