‘An open letter to my fellow Labour MPs: if not the full Hillsborough Law, what is this government for?’

The fight that followed for truth, justice and accountability has lasted nearly four decades. What happened afterwards taught us something devastating; when the state fails, it too often closes ranks, hides the truth, and leaves ordinary people to suffer alone.

That is why the Hillsborough families and campaigners fought for a simple but powerful legacy law, one that ends the culture of cover-ups, forces public bodies to tell the truth, and ensures no family ever again faces what they did.

A Hillsborough Law.

Not a half-measure. Not a version with loopholes. The real thing.

This Government promised exactly that. The Prime Minister promised it. We were elected on it.

Yet the Government’s latest amendments partially carve the intelligence services out of the duty of candour.

That would allow the very behaviour exposed by the Manchester Arena Inquiry to happen again where MI5 was able to withhold information and avoid accountability.

The Manchester families have warned us clearly this is not what was promised by the Prime Minister.

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I cannot, and will not, support amendments that abandon them. Or the nuclear test veterans. Or the Chinook disaster families. Or any victims of state failure who were told this law would finally change things.

The amendment I have tabled does not weaken national security. Existing safeguards already allow sensitive material to be protected. What it does do is ensure that no arm of the state is above the law when it fails. That is the whole point.

This isn’t about technicalities. It’s about who we are here to serve.

The Labour Party exists to build a state that works for ordinary people, not one that protects itself. If we cannot deliver a law that tells the truth, supports grieving families and ends a culture of cover-ups, then we must ask ourselves a hard question: what is this Government for?

I cannot believe I find myself writing these words.  Shame on those vested interests who have put us in this position.

But on Monday, you have a choice that will follow you for the rest of your political life.

You can vote for carve-outs that keep parts of the state beyond the reach of truth and accountability. Or you can vote to end, once and for all, the culture of cover-ups that destroyed lives and denied justice for decades.

This is not just a vote on a Bill. It is a test of whether Labour in government still stands with ordinary people when the state fails.

I, and all the Hillsborough Law Now campaigners, ask you to meet that test. Vote against the Government’s amendments. Support mine. Deliver THE Hillsborough Law we were promised not a diluted version, but the real thing.

The families never walked away from this fight. On Monday, do not walk away from them.

JFT97