00:00A Labour MP who was at the Hillsborough disaster has renewed the efforts of campaigners to introduce a Hillsborough law which would aim to prevent cover-ups after major disasters as he accused the Prime Minister of inaction.
00:13In 2022, Keir Starmer stood before the people of Liverpool at Labour Party conference and pledged, and I quote,
00:20One of my first acts as Prime Minister will be to put the Hillsborough law on the statute book.
00:27He said the same again as Prime Minister in September 2024, not a Hillsborough law, the Hillsborough law.
00:36That pledge filled our hearts with hope. It's promised an end to the culture of denial and delay.
00:44Ian Byrne was at the disaster aged 16 in 1989 which led to the deaths of 97 football fans during the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the football ground in Sheffield.
00:55On the 15th of April 1989, I entered the stadium as an innocent 16-year-old full of hope, excitement to watch my beloved Liverpool Football Club in an FA Cup semi-final.
01:07Little did I, or anybody else did that day, know that we were walking into a national disaster that would leave 97 men, women and children dead,
01:17hundreds more injured and countless families devastated for generations.
01:20The MP for West Derby introduced a Public Authority Accountability Bill centred around a duty of candour which would force public bodies to cooperate with official enquiries
01:30and tell the truth after major disasters or face criminal sanctions.
01:35This bill is for the 97, but it is also for the victims of every other state failure and for every family that might in the future face the nightmare of being left alone to fight for truth and justice.
01:47The government had introduced a similar bill which was criticised by campaigners and legal experts for not having a legally binding duty of candour.
01:56It was pulled over concerns related to who the duty of candour would apply to.
02:00Campaigners fear another bill could be reintroduced that would still be insufficient.
02:05This law will not weaken public institutions, it will strengthen them, it will protect the vast majority of decent, hard-working public servants,
02:15those who, if faced with pressure to conceal the truth, will finally, finally have law on their side,
02:21it will deliver justice more swiftly and more affordably, reducing the need for drawn-out expensive enquiries and inquests,
02:28which currently cost the public payers hundreds of millions of pounds.
02:31Sir Keir was asked about the issue of Prime Minister's questions before Mr Byrne spoke in Parliament.
02:37The Prime Minister said he had been speaking to families personally about what would come forward.
02:42Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that his Hillsborough law will include a legal duty of candour amid fears the government's watering down its proposals.
02:51Sir Keir said, we will bring this forward, I just want to take the time to get it right and then put it before the House.
02:58Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed that it is a good point of view of candour amid the
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