EXCLUSIVE: Hillsborough law campaigners weigh in on spycops cover-up

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Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside Kim Johnson and the Hillsborough Justice Campaign joined thousands of campaigners criticising the government’s “perverse use of the Public Office (Accountability) Bill to shut” the long-running inquiry down.

The Bill is set to create a legally enforceable duty of candour which compels public officials and authorities to act transparently when investigations and inquiries take place.

It is currently in the Lords having passed the Commons thanks to decades-long campaigning for police and government accountability for failings that saw 97 Liverpool football fans killed in a stadium crush in 1989.

However, a challenge over using it to limit the scope of the probe into an undercover police unit that spied on tens of thousands of political activists could now rock this month’s Labour conference in Liverpool.

A fringe meeting will host a panel discussion including Ms Johnson, and representatives Police Spies Out of Lives, Hillsborough Law Now, the Cammell Laird 37 and the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign on Monday September 28.

Ms Johnson, who has been a prominent and vocal backer of the Bill, told the Morning Star: “The duty of candour demanded by the Hillsborough Law was devised because families like those at Hillsborough spent decades fighting a state system that concealed the truth rather than confronting it.

“It is brazenly hypocritical for the Home Office to now use the introduction of the Hillsborough Law as a reason to limit the scope of the undercover policing inquiry.

“This new line of argument is particularly revealing about the attitude of the Home Office and the police towards public accountability.

“It underlines why there has been so much resistance to passing this law in its fullest form and why the decades-long fight by the Hillsborough families for candour and accountability in public office has been so important. It underscores exactly why this law is so necessary.

“This inquiry is exposing a scandalous pattern of state abuse and deception — which is precisely why it must be given the time and resource necessary to uncover the full extent of the truth.

“It has already uncovered extensive misconduct, and these attempts to restrict further investigation beg the question what more have the police got to hide?”

On Friday, the Home Office was locked down as core participants to the inquiry attempted to hand-deliver more than 2,600 letters warning the department’s consultation could amount to a “state cover-up.”

Victims who were duped into relationships with undercover police officers were in a standoff with security for about an hour as a 55-year-old man was “manhandled” by guards.

The consultation, which was launched the day after the Hillsborough Law cleared the Commons in July, proposes replacing the current inquiry with “an independent non‑statutory” one which “will not have formal powers to compel evidence from unwilling witnesses,” noting that “it may have these powers in the future, depending on changes made” by the Public Office (Accountability) Bill.”

Among the letters delivered on Friday was an appeal from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign by its chair Ken Derbyshire.

He said: “Survivors haven’t fought for all these years so a law (not yet enacted) can be used to deny other victims truth and accountability.

“Moreover, the Hillsborough Law (if eventually enacted) has its limitations.

“Laws may come into place but cultural shifts take much longer. In the name of truth and justice we would urge you to cease any plans to curtail the inquiry.”

One of the inquiry’s core participants Ben Leamy added: “We were so excited about the Hillsborough Law.

“We hoped Andy Burnham’s long-standing commitment to ‘rewiring the state’ and ‘rebalancing the scales of justice’ would be good news for us.

“All the delays this inquiry has faced are because of the police and the state avoiding their duty of candour and seeking to keep evidence out of the public gaze.

“If the Hillsborough Law had been in place at the start of this inquiry we would not be where we are today, so we were absolutely stunned when the first thing the government did off the back of the Bill was to try and shut our inquiry down. It hasn’t even passed yet and it’s already being abused!”

A spokesman for the the British Association of Social Workers, which has campaigned for the Hillsborough Law alongside unions, said: “BASW would be concerned about any attempt of an inappropriate use of the Hillsborough Law that would negatively impact or censor public inquiries such as the spycops inquiry.”

The consultation is expected to publish a report before Christmas, with ministers making a decision about the future of the inquiry early next year.

The Home Office was contacted for comment.

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