May and Brown backing calls for new law

Gordon Brown and Theresa May have joined renewed calls by campaigners for a Hillsborough Law.

Such a law will introduce changes to the legal system to prevent others from going through what the bereaved families of Britain’s worst sporting disaster experienced over decades.

A Hillsborough Law would introduce a statutory duty of candour on public servants during all forms of public inquiry and criminal investigation.

It also aims to ensure proper participation of bereaved families at inquests, through publicly-funded legal representation and the provision of a public advocate to act for families of the deceased after major incidents.

Speaking yesterday at the online Hillsborough Law Now event, Mr Brown said: “No one should ever have to go through what all Hillsborough families have had to live through.”

Mrs May said: “If we can change the system so that others do not have to suffer in the way the Hillsborough families did, then it would be a valuable legacy for the 97.”

Sir Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool FC manager at the 1989 cup tie who went to many of the victims’ funerals, told the event: “The way that the various departments of the establishment went about this disaster was unbelievably poor.

“And for me, I would agree going forward with the Hillsborough Law because at the end of the day we are all equal. Everybody should be given the same opportunity to defend themselves, to get some proper justice done for them when they go to court.”

He said it would be a “fitting tribute” to the families and what they have endured.