‘Watered down’ Hillsborough Law would be no use

A “watered down” version of a Hillsborough Law would be “no use”, the mother of one of the 97 victims has said on the 36th anniversary of the disaster.

Margaret Aspinall told the BBC that the law, which would force public bodies to cooperate with investigations into major disasters or potentially face criminal sanctions, must be introduced “in all its entirety”.

Sir Keir Starmer had previously promised to pass a bill by 15 April, but confirmed on Monday “more time” was needed to pass the “best version” of the legislation.

Ms Aspinall, who lost her 18-year-old son James at Hillsborough, called on Sir Keir to “not take too long in doing the right thing”.

She said: “To be truthful with you I’m pleased to hear that he’s going to do the best version, but the best version for me is it’s got to be all in its entirety.

“It’s no use watering it down in any way, shape, or form otherwise it would never be a Hillsborough Law.”

Last month rumblings about changes to the proposed bill culminated with the prime minister cancelling a meeting with the Hillsborough families.

Campaigners expressed concerns that officials had amended the bill to water down potential sanctions for officials.

Ms Aspinall said the law needed to impose a duty of candour on individuals and not simply public bodies, as well as proper legal funding for families of victims of state deaths to achieve “parity of arms”.

“We had to go out campaigning for funding from the ordinary public, which was an absolute disgrace to help us fight such an injustice that we had,” she said.

It was not until 2016 that an inquest jury concluded the 97 victims were unlawfully killed in the stadium crush at Sheffield’s Hillsborough stadium amid a number of police errors.

Ms Aspinall said she had “not had time” to have any feelings about the anniversary because she was still forced, along with many others, to campaign for change.

“Each year that passes by there’s always something going on about Hillsborough, because lessons have never been learned,” she said.

Ms Aspinall added: “You only have to look at the Post Office scandal, Grenfell, contaminated blood, I can name so many things that there’s been an injustice.”

She said it was important for the law to represent a “legacy” for the 97, as well as the survivors who were “still suffering” from the trauma of that day.

“I have always said we have try to make something good out of something so tragic,” she said.

The prime minister’s spokesman paid tribute to the Hillsborough families, and said: “We are determined to enshrine their profound legacy as we work to introduce a Hillsborough Law that will deliver the justice they deserve.”

Pressed on a timetable for bringing forward a bill, he said: “Having consulted with groups over recent weeks and months, we believe more time is needed to draft the best version of a Hillsborough Law.

“But we remain fully committed to bringing this legislation at pace, and we’ll obviously continue to work with them in the weeks ahead and provide an update when we’ve got it.”