Political editor Liam Thorp on the seismic changes a Hillsborough Law will bring after years of tireless campaigning by the families of the 97
Liam is the Liverpool ECHO's multi award-winning political editor and brings you all the major stories coming from the region's councils, MPs and further afield. He also oversees the work of a team of local democracy reporters, who cover town halls across the Liverpool City Region. Liam led the ECHO's coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. He has a particular interest in writing about and highlighting social injustice and has broken a number of nationally recognised exclusive stories. He joined the ECHO in 2017 having previously been chief reporter at The Bolton News. You can find him on twitter @LiamThorpECHO
Hillsborough families have campaigned for a change in the law for many years
Hillsborough families have campaigned for a change in the law for many years
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
It cannot be overstated what the next couple of days will mean.
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister will lay before Parliament a bill that, if implemented in full, will completely rebalance the way this country functions and will bring the biggest fundamental change to how the justice system works for ordinary people in nearly three decades.
There have been many, many times when those who have been campaigning for a Hillsborough Law and those supporting it have thought this day would never come. There were times when it looked like this once-in-a-lifetime chance for such seismic and vital change would be lost forever.
But now it is here and it is happening and that is for one key reason - the courage, determination and superhuman fortitude of the Hillsborough families.
This is a group of people who have endured more than any of us could imagine. From the unbearable loss of their mums, dads, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters - to the pernicious lies and malevolent smears spread about them and those taken from them in such traumatic circumstances over so many tortuous years.
Hillsborough unleashed the worst and most shameful side of the British state. An ordinary group of working class people who were simply unlucky enough to be caught up in a major tragedy, who then found themselves, grief-stricken and bereft, trying to navigate through a complex and deeply unfair system in which those with power use it to close ranks, to deny the truth and to attack and insult anyone who challenges them.
The Hillsborough memorial at Anfield
The Hillsborough memorial at Anfield (Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
Unfortunately, the 1989 disaster is far from the only time we have seen these themes play out. From The Post Office scandal to infected blood, from Grenfell to Manchester Arena and from nuclear test veterans to Covid-19 families - for far too long, ordinary people have been badly let down by the way this country functions - at a time when they most needed support.
This journey has been long, exhausting and difficult for the families. Having fought for their truth to finally come out at the new inquests, they were never given the justice they deserved - with no one held accountable for what happened on that terrible day in Sheffield.
So it is to their immense credit that they responded to that devastating reality with a renewed mission to ensure that no other group of people will suffer in the way they did for so long.
The Hillsborough families won't benefit from this change in the law, that opportunity for them, tragically has passed - but this remarkable, resilient group of people have somehow summoned the reserves of energy to continue to fight for people they may never even know.
But if there is one thing the government must surely know by now it is the families will not be stopped in their enduring fight. Bringing the bill into parliament is a huge step, but there is still a way to go before it comes fully into law.
If ministers even begin to think they can water this legislation down they will have another thing coming.