Sir Keir Starmer introduced the "Hillsborough Law" in Parliament, a landmark legislation aimed at preventing future state cover-ups after disasters. The Public Office (Accountability) Bill will legally compel public officials and contractors to be truthful during investigations, with criminal sanctions for those who attempt to conceal facts.
The Labour leader used the parliamentary debate to deliver a stark acknowledgement of state failure. He 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. [...] 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.»
Starmer went further, calling the aftermath a deliberate injustice: «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 [...] police lies and smears against their loved ones while the central state, the government, aided and abetted them for years and years and years.»
The Prime Minister linked the Hillsborough cover-up to a broader pattern of state failures. He told Parliament: «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.»
The Hillsborough disaster occurred on 15 April 1989 during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in Sheffield, where 97 football fans died in a crush. Families campaigned for decades to uncover the truth about the events. Margaret Aspinall, whose son James died in the disaster, watched from the public gallery during the debate.
The law will apply across the United Kingdom but will not be retrospective. Private bodies contracted for publicly funded services will also be subject to the new duty of candour.
Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
