Liverpool and Manchester mayors call for withdrawal of Hillsborough law security amendment

The mayors of Liverpool and Manchester have urged the government to withdraw an amendment to the Hillsborough law, saying it "creates too broad an opt-out" by allowing intelligence officials to decide what information is released to investigators after a major incident. In a joint statement posted on X, Liverpool city region mayor Steve Rotheram and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the amendment "risks undermining the spirit of the legislation" and called on ministers to withdraw it ahead of Monday’s debate.

They said they had seen "devastating incidents" in their regions and would never support anything that compromised national security. Campaigners had warned a draft of the public office (accountability) bill might allow security officials to "hide serious failures behind a vague claim of national security".

Calls for a Hillsborough law began in 2016 after a second inquest into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans, later recorded as 97, at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final; the disaster, blamed on negligent crowd control by South Yorkshire police, left 766 injured and was compounded when Liverpool fans were wrongly blamed after false reports of hooliganism were fed to the press.

Key Topics

Politics, Hillsborough Law, Steve Rotheram, Andy Burnham, Hillsborough Law Now, Public Office Bill