We must deliver the Hillsborough law as promised – loopholes are not acceptable
Margaret Aspinall, Hillsborough Law Now campaigner, introduces UK PM Keir Starmer at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, September 2025 (Credit: Milo Chandler/Alamy Live News)
3 min read
Most MPs can point to a moment that brought them to this House. For me, it was Hillsborough.
For decades, I have seen bereaved families and traumatised survivors campaign for the truth and justice against a state that failed them, lied to them and avoided accountability.
Despite the verdicts of unlawful killing on the victims of Hillsborough at the second inquest hearings in 2016, after the original inquests were quashed by the attorney general in 2012 and there was clear evidence of cover-ups, justice was never delivered. No charges were brought to bear on those responsible. In fact, disgracefully, some of those responsible for the cover-up were given knighthoods.
Hillsborough taught me how the establishment protects itself while working-class families are left to fight alone. I saw parents and survivors smeared, ignored and forced to grieve in public while those responsible hid behind power and privilege. Their courage exposed a system designed to evade accountability. That injustice stayed with me. It is why I will always stand with victims, not institutions, and why this law must finally put truth, transparency and justice before the interests of the state.
That is why in 2021, we relaunched Andy Burnham’s and Steve Rotheram’s original 2017 campaign for a Hillsborough law in Parliament. To end state cover-ups, enforce a duty of candour, and ensure no family ever again faces what the Hillsborough families endured.
This is the most important mission of my time in Parliament. Hillsborough is why I am here. I was extremely proud to see it in the Labour manifesto on which I was re-elected to Westminster in 2024, and I welcomed the commitments from the Prime Minister on its full implementation at the Labour Conference in Liverpool last year.
But the bill we have now is not that law yet. It is 80 per cent there, with a duty of candour on public servants and parity of arms in inquests. But by partially exempting the intelligence services from a full duty of candour, it places part of the state above the law when it fails.
We have seen the consequences of that approach. The Manchester Arena inquiry exposed how intelligence was withheld and falsehoods went unaccounted for. The families have made clear: this bill, as currently drafted, risks letting that happen again.
I was relieved by the government’s decision to delay and withdraw their unworkable amendments. It was the right thing to do, without the support of the families and indeed Parliament, for their amendment. And I welcomed Alex Davies-Jones’ assurance that the bill amendments will be added in the Commons rather than the Lords.
Now the ball is firmly in the government’s court. Ministers must act swiftly and go further by adopting the amendments I laid, created by the very lawyers who wrote the original Hillsborough law in 2017.
We must deliver the Hillsborough law as promised – without exemptions, without loopholes and without carve-outs. The amendment I’ve laid applies existing national security safeguards to the duty of candour. It does not weaken security – it strengthens accountability. Claims to the contrary do not stand up.
This is a hugely important bill for this country and this government. We should never forget that it’s a legacy for the 97 and all those wronged at the hands of the state. We must get it right in Parliament and change this country immeasurably for the better.
Ian Byrne is Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby
