Families of victims of the Hillsborough disaster have said they can no longer support the Hillsborough Bill after it was significantly watered down by the Government, in an embarrassing blow to the Prime Minister.
Campaigners and families have said they are ‘exhausted’ after the Government carved out an exemption for spooks in the draft legislation – rendering it unsupportable in their eyes.
Charlotte Hennessy, whose father James was unlawfully killed at Hillsborough, was one of a number of Hillsborough Law campaigners to meet with Sir Keir on Wednesday this week for crisis talks over the passage of the bill.
However, Sir Keir failed to address concerns raised in the crunch talks, those who attended have said.
‘We are exhausted, all of us,’ said Ms Hennessy. ‘There is a lot on the line, the reputation of the Prime Minister and his Government.’
She added: ‘I did say to him that I feel that if we couldn’t come to an agreement in the 48 hours after the meeting until Friday to look at this amendment again. That is the crucial stage we are at now.
But she warned: ‘I cannot back that amendment and I won’t be forced into backing it, as much as I appreciate the hard work put in by everyone, we won’t back down as a collective group on this and the Prime Minister knows that.
‘He knows he only has until Friday, I told him that.’
Keir Starmer at Labour Party conference last year with Margaret Aspinall, whose son James, 18, was one of the 97 people killed in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster
Charlotte Hennessy, whose father James was unlawfully killed at Hillsborough, was one of a number of Hillsborough Law campaigners to meet with Sir Keir on Wednesday this week for crisis talks over the passage of the bill
Sir Keir opened his Labour conference speech last year with a pledge to ‘bring a measure of justice’ to the those affected by the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy by championing the bill.
The legislation will see public officials or organisations that obstruct or mislead investigations potentially facing criminal charges.
But Sir Keir has now lost the trust of families and campaigners, who say the changed bill gives a ‘carte blanche’ to the intelligence services.
Elkan Abrahamson, a lawyer for the Hillsborough Law Now campaign, said the amendments allowed the heads of the security services to make ‘whatever decision they want’ on whether to disclose information and rendered them ‘unchallengeable’.
Caroline Curry, whose son Liam Curry, 19, was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, said she was ‘devastated’ at the Government’s attempts to weaken the bill, and felt like she had been misled.
‘We can’t bring our children back, they’re gone,’ she said, adding the families’ only power now was to ‘stand up for other people and try to protect their children’.
Lisa Rutherford, whose daughter Chloe Rutherford, 17, was also killed, said: ‘All we want is honesty’.
‘They have said that they will go away and have another look but we are not hopeful,’ she added.
Families campaigning for the bill fear spooks will be able to block officers from giving evidence.
This comes as officers giving evidence to the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry revealed that MI5 had not been truthful about intelligence it held that may have stopped the bomber from launching his attack, in which 22 people were killed at an Ariana Grande concert.
Ms Curry said the Government’s bill is ‘still giving carte blanche to the security services, MI5’ and that campaigners could not support it in its current form.
Asked yesterday if the families’ position would compromise national security, No 10 said: ‘There will always be times where protective information cannot be made public, to release it would compromise national security. The Government will not bring forward legislation that will put the national security of the UK or lives at risk.’
Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne said changing the bill ‘so fundamentally’ would ‘cause a huge amount of damage’ for the PM
They added: ‘We want to continue working with families to make the bill as strong as it can possibly be. This is a hugely important piece of legislation and we want that engagement with families to continue.’
Sir Keir is also facing a fresh rebellion from Labour MPs over the weakened legislation.
Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne said changing the bill ‘so fundamentally’ would ‘cause a huge amount of damage’ for the PM – with around 30 MPs now backing the Labour MP’s own amendment fully applying the law to security services.
‘You can only imagine what it would do in Liverpool, what it would do in and areas across the country who are invested in this.
‘I didn’t even want to countenance that it was possible we’d be in this position now’.
Fellow Liverpool MP Kim Johnson said: ‘This is not the bill we were promised by the Prime Minister’ and insisted on a ‘full duty of candour for every public body’.
Anneliese Midgley, the Labour MP for Knowsley said that the last 24 hours have been ‘heartbreaking’.
‘Promises were made to the Hillsborough families. Even at this eleventh hour, I urge the government to change course, and to deliver this landmark bill in full and as promised.’
MPs also warned that a draft version of the legislation might allow spy agencies to ‘hide serious failures behind a vague claim of national security’.
MPs had been set to debate the Hillsborough Law on Wednesday, but will now do so on 19 January as the Government considers the concerns raised.
