By Alex Thomson

Copyright channel4

It has been a long, hard struggle. First for the truth about what happened and then for justice. We are talking about Hillsborough as it happens, but we could be referring to any number of great British disasters.

The long struggles, first for the truth of what happened and then – even more elusive – the struggle for justice.

In the Hillsborough case it is the campaign for truth and justice by the families of the 97 Liverpool fans crushed to death at the Hillsborough Stadium in April 1989.

This morning they won a highly unusual victory because it is not for the Hillsborough campaign at all. Nor will many of the others currently wanting the truth about what happened in past disasters benefit either.

It’s all about the future and ending what the government has described as the ‘culture of cover ups” for disasters yet to happen.

Possible imprisonment

So a law will go through Parliament, meaning that any public servant who covers up information in the wake of a disaster faces possible imprisonment of up to two years.

Police, politicians, civil servants, lawyers – and we understand – the military too.

We caught up with Margaret Aspinall, one of the leading Hillsborough campaigners for truth and justice, fresh from meeting the prime minister.

She is understandably overjoyed. She told Channel 4 News Sir Keir Starmer had promised the so-called “Hillsborough Law”, forcing a duty of honesty upon public servants would not be watered down as it progresses through both Houses of Parliament.

His promise for such a law to be in place by April this year, 36 years on from the disaster, did not happen. There have been months of legal wrangling, but the bill is now good to go.

Potential test cases

Some immediate and intriguing potential test cases arise. In July, the government announced an inquiry into the violence meted out by police on striking miners at the Orgreave coking works decades ago during the miners’ strike.

Incidentally, that involves the same police force involved in the Hillsborough disaster – South Yorkshire Police – whose reputation remains damaged by all that. So an immediate test case there.

Of course, there are wider crisis politics in play here, with a government generally and a prime minister particularly, under pressure.

It is hard to escape the notion that the current political crisis has given impetus to the PM to be seen to be acting, to be seen to be delivering on promises, to be seen to be delivering for people.

Wider legacy

We can’t know how much that has played into today’s decision to push this legislation through Parliament, but it must have helped the families of the 97 crushed to death in such appalling circumstances all those years ago and surely must make a difference going forward.

Already campaigners for the truth to emerge from other disasters have welcomed this. For example the Chinook Justice Campaign say they stand fully behind Hillsborough campaigners with this new law.

And why? Because official papers surrounding the helicopter crash which killed the cream of British intelligence on Northern Ireland have been locked away for 100 years. Campaigners say that cannot be allowed in a crash where we already know the military top brass falsely blamed the pilots for the disaster.

Hillsborough campaigners have now achieved a much wider legacy for disasters yet to happen.

So the Hillsborough campaigners who have done so much down the decades to push for truth and justice in what happened to them, have now achieved a much wider legacy for disasters yet to happen.

Their greatest achievement may yet prove to be this law, if it forces greater openness, candour and frankly, honesty upon the British establishment.

A much wider victory then, but only if, as campaigners say, Keir Starmer keeps his promise today that the proposed law will not be watered down.