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The British state failed the victims of the Hillsborough disaster and their families, Sir Keir Starmer has said, adding those who died were “unlawfully killed”. The Prime Minister paid tribute to the families who had campaigned for the truth behind what caused the death of 97 football fans as a result of a crush at the FA Cup semi-final in Sheffield in 1989. The relatives, including Margaret Aspinall whose son James died at the disaster, watched on from the public gallery. Sir Keir introduced a so-called Hillsborough Law in Parliament – the Public Office (Accountability) Bill – which will force public officials, and contractors, to tell the truth in the aftermath of disasters, and to investigating bodies. Sir Keir said: “I want to begin this debate with a simple acknowledgement, long overdue, that the British state failed the families and victims of Hillsborough to an almost inhuman level. “Those victims and their families, their strength, their courage, their refusal to give up, a determination no matter what was thrown at them to fight for people they’ll never know or meet, to make sure that they never go through something like this again. “They are the reason we stand here today with this Bill. “They are the reason why it will be known as the Hillsborough Law, and they are the reason why we say clearly again, what should have been said immediately, that their loved ones were unlawfully killed, and that they never bore any responsibility for what happened in Sheffield that day. We say it at this despatch box today.” The legal duty of candour means authorities will face criminal sanctions if they attempt to cover up the facts behind disasters. It came after Hillsborough families spent decades trying to get to the bottom of what happened before and in the early stages of the match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. It will not apply retrospectively – but will be in force, once passed, across the United Kingdom. Private bodies which have won contracts to provide services for publicly funded bodies will also have to follow the law. Sir Keir referenced the Horizon scandal at the Post Office, where Fujitsu provided the faulty computer system. He said it offered an example where lines were “blurred”. He also said the law would not be watered down. He said: “We often call Hillsborough a tragedy, but it’s more than a tragedy, because the disaster was not down to chance, it was not an accident. “It was an injustice, and then further injustice piled on top when the state subjected those families to endure from the police lies and smears against their loved ones while the central state, the government, aided and abetted them for years and years and years. “A cover-up by the very institutions that are supposed to protect and to serve. It is nothing less than a stain of modern history of this country.” The Prime Minister said the disaster cover-up was not a one-off, pointing to the Horizon scandal, Grenfell Tower, infected blood and grooming gangs. He added: “We should also be blunt that there’s a pattern common to all these scandals that time and again, the British state struggles to recognise injustice because of who the victims are, because they’re working-class, because they’re black, because they’re women and girls. “That is the injustice that this Bill seeks to correct.” Shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan said the Bill should “provide the necessary legal clarity to underpin its successful operation”. “We’ve seen too often government decisions that the government considers to be in the public interest challenged repeatedly and often successfully in the courts,” he said. “How will this Bill be utilised by campaign groups who wish to legally challenge the Government in support of what they consider to be in the public interest? “That’s not to say that we can’t make this Bill work, but we need to consider its terminology carefully.” Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Jess Brown-Fuller called for the duty of candour to be extended to social media companies. She said her party is backing the proposal from the Molly Rose Foundation, a UK charity established after the death of 14-year-old Molly Russell in 2017. A coroner said exposure to harmful online content contributed to Molly’s death. Ms Brown-Fuller said: “Much more needs to be done to strengthen accountability, transparency and openness, including within social media companies. “And the Molly Rose Foundation campaign on suicide prevention have correctly pointed out that, despite recent powers on disclosure targeting social media companies, these organisations have significant commercial and reputational incentives to delay and obstruct investigative proceedings. “So in this regard, we support their cause for an amendment to this Bill which would extend the duty of candour to social media companies, ensuring that these organisations can be held to account in the same way.” The Liberal Democrats also called for the strengthening of whistleblowing protections, including the establishment of an independent office for the whistleblower and for the UK’s whistleblowing framework to include anonymous reporting, legal representation, funding and a statutory duty on organisations to foster a speak-up culture.
