UK veterans fired over sexuality to get £70,000 in compensation

MoD launches 75m scheme to recognise moral stain' of armed forces' historic ban on homosexuality

Thousands of British military personnel who were dismissed from service because of their homosexuality will be able to apply for payments worth up to 70,000 each from today, to recognise the distress caused by a ban that applied between 1967 and 2000.

Labour ministers have approved the creation of a 75m compensation scheme, nearly a quarter of a century after the ending of a policy that led to some soldiers being jailed, while others were stripped of their medals and lost their pension rights.