Justice at last

There are few causes that evoke such strong emotions in the Labour Party as the Hillsborough tragedy and the decades-long fight for justice that followed. 

On 15 April 1989 97 Liverpool fans went to watch their team play an FA Cup semi-final. 95  never came home. Two further victims had their lives changed forever and later died and were counted by the coroner as among the victims of the tragedy.

If their tragic deaths hadn’t been bad enough, everything that followed compounded the pain of their families. The police, the government, the Sun – all closed ranks to not just protect their own, but to do so in ways that were as cruel and inhumane as they were mendacious. 

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

Yesterday the third reading of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill – widely known as the Hillsborough Law passed the Commons. This law doesn’t actually deliver recompense for the victims of the disaster. It does something the families cherished much more. It makes it so much harder for anyone to ever treat future victims in the same way again. Justice for the 97 has become justice for all of us. Justice for the Post Office workers, justice for the Manchester Arena victims. Justice for any of us who could find ourselves struggling with an imbalance of power as we fight for what is right. 

There was something rather poetic and very fitting about this being both one of the last parliamentary acts of Keir Starmer’s premiership and also the scene of Andy Burnham’s maiden speech. 

Starmer is a passionate lifelong football fan. He also spent much of his legal career fighting (often pro bono) for causes of injustice including representing the NUM and the defendants in the McLibel case. This legislation marks a fitting legacy for the PM and one we should all be pleased he has the opportunity to be proud of. 

Anyone who has read Head North (and that will soon include LabourList reader Peter Taylor who has won a signed copy in our Fantasy Cabinet draw) knows how foundational the Hillsborough tragedy was to Burnham’s political life. The book opens on that day and both Burnham and co-author Steve Rotherham talk about their memories of it. He also talks about how the anger he faced as Culture Minister at the 20th anniversary memorial at Anfield was a seminal moment for him. It is quite clear that this was the start of his journey from loyal minister to someone more willing to ask the right and difficult questions and less willing to play the game. You can practically watch in real time the seeds being sown for the politician he has now grown into. 

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The journey to get here has never been easy. Too many times progress has been slow, halted, faltering and held back. Too often the forces gathered against success felt too strong, too powerful to be overcome. 

It is – sadly –  not always true that the arc of history bends towards justice. We did not always think we would get here. Labour did not always take the fastest or best route ourselves. And Burnham talks about this in his book. But we got here. And we should all be very proud that we did. 

The Hillsborough families have been tireless in their efforts to change the balance of power between those who represent us and those whom they are meant to serve but have sometimes let down in protecting their own status. 

Tonight, the English part of our nation will be united in first hope and then either despair or joy around a football game. Yesterday, what started with a horrific tragedy at a football match which has caused so much despair over the years now brings a new sense of hope.

If you do nothing else today, watch the incredible speech by Ian Byrne MP who was at Hillsborough that day. Then take a moment to feel proud that we elected the government that has enacted this law.

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