ON the eve of the 33rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 men, women and children were unlawfully killed, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, have written to all 650 British MPs, urging them to give their backing to a Hillsborough Law.

The latest action comes in the wake of a major cross-party “Hillsborough Law Now” event in January this year, which saw bereaved families, former Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Theresa May, and a host of high-profile public figures come together to call for a major re-balancing of the justice system to prevent others going through what the Hillsborough families have gone through.

In the letter, the Mayors ask MPs for two commitments: first, to make a personal commitment to the principle of a comprehensive Hillsborough Law; and second, to call on the Government to commit to introducing it in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech.

They write:

”This is the 75th anniversary year of the first British nuclear test conducted overseas. In the years that followed, over 20,000 British servicemen were exposed to tests without consent or protective equipment, causing huge health harm to them and their families. And yet, shamefully, our country continues to leave them lost in the wilderness.

Similarly, the thousands of families bereaved by the contaminated blood scandal, which began over four decades ago, are still fighting for basic answers.

For families bereaved by more recent events, such Grenfell and the Manchester Arena attack, the parallels between their experiences and those of the Hillsborough families are already clear.

The reason why this pattern keeps on repeating is simple: the scales of justice are weighed against ordinary families and in favour of public authorities who hold all the power. “

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