MPs call for prosecutions to follow Hillsborough verdict of unlawful killing of 96 Liverpool fans

In a sombre atmosphere in the House of Commons with some MPs seeming to hold back tears, the most powerful contribution came from Labour’s Andy Burnham, who urged those responsible for the “27-year cover-up” to be held to account.

He said the inquest verdict of unlawful killing was simple, clear, powerful and emphatic but it begged the question how could something so obvious have taken so long to come about.

“There are three reasons,” he suggested. “First, a police force that has consistently put protecting itself over and above protecting people harmed by Hillsborough. Secondly, collusion between that force and a complicit print media. And thirdly, a flawed judicial system that gives the upper hand to those in authority over and above ordinary people.”

The Shadow Home Secretary said the cover-up went right to the top.

“It was advanced in the committee rooms of this House and in the press rooms of 10 Downing Street. It persisted because of collusion between elites in politics—on both sides—police and the media.”

But he praised Home Secretary Theresa May for having stood outside of that and expressed his “sincere admiration and gratitude to her for the stance she has consistently taken in righting this wrong”.

Yet he declared the cover-up shamefully continued at the latest inquest. “Millions of pounds of public money were spent re-telling discredited lies. Lawyers for retired officers threw disgusting slurs; those for today's force tried to establish that others were responsible for the opening of the gate.

"If the police had chosen to maintain its apology, this inquest would have been much shorter. But they didn't and they put the families through hell once again."

Mr Burnham called on Mrs May to ensure there would be “no holding back in pursuing prosecutions,” noting how the Crown Prosecution Service had said files would be submitted by December.

The MP for Leigh near Manchester urged the UK Government to address the "mismatch" of legal representation between public bodies and bereaved families and put in place Leveson recommendations regarding press intrusion.

The Home Secretary in her statement praised the Hillsborough families’ “extraordinary dignity and determination” to seek justice.

“I do not think it is possible for any of us truly to understand what they have been through; not only in losing their loved ones in such horrific circumstances that day but in hearing finding after finding over 27 years telling them something that they believed to be fundamentally untrue. Quite simply, they have never given up.”

Mrs May paid tribute to Mr Burnham’s “tireless” campaigning on behalf of the victims’ families and praised the “significant civic duty” the jury members performed, having sat through two years of hearings in the longest running inquest in British history.

In a hushed chamber, she then methodically went through the inquest jury’s determinations in full and said that she hoped they would for the families and survivors “bring them closer towards the peace they have been so long denied”.

Joanna Cherry for the SNP acknowledged the “heroic struggle for justice” the victims’ families had been engaged in for nearly 30 years.

She told MPs: “Hillsborough must rank alongside Bloody Sunday as one of the most disgraceful Establishment cover-ups of our time,” and that the truth having now been found “appropriate action and prosecutions must be seen to follow swiftly”.

Alex Salmond, the former First Minister, suggested the Home Secretary look at charges that covered “perversion of the course of justice, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and perjury, because that is where the real evil lies”.

Mrs May stressed how prosecutions were entirely a decision for the CPS and added: “We must leave it to make that decision independently.”