Andy Burnham has hailed a power shift from the state to the people as MPs finally passed the stalled Hillsborough law, a rare moment of Labour unity with the bill set to be a key legacy of Keir Starmer’s government.
In his first intervention in the Commons since returning as an MP, Burnham said the bill was a significant step towards securing the accountability the Hillsborough families had fought for – but should never have had to do.
“We have had a situation in this country where people suffer the trauma of the initial bereavement, the incident that took their loved ones away, and then they are re-traumatised by the behaviour of the state,” he said.
“We can’t take that hurt away tonight. But we can put decency back at the heart of the British state, and that is what this bill does.”
Burnham, who has been a long and passionate campaigner for the Hillsborough families and for the law, said the bill would be “truly a rewiring of the state” and that the lessons were still relevant to other major public scandals where institutions have protected themselves rather than the people.
The public office (accountability) bill puts a duty of candour on public officials, meaning those who lie or evade during inquiries into tragedies would face prosecution.
The law has also been a personal crusade for Starmer and one he vowed to see through on the stage at Labour conference in Liverpool last year, with the Hillsborough campaigner Margaret Aspinall.
He told the campaigners he would spend his post-No 10 life still fighting for their cause. “Whatever happens next in my life, I’m never giving up on this. While I’ve got breath in my body, I’m going to campaign on all these issues with all of you for as long as is necessary,” he said.
He said the campaigners had “taught me to listen, over many, many years, to listen properly, listen good and hard, not defend the indefensible, but to decide to change things”.
The Guardian understands that senior members of Burnham’s team – including the Knowsley MP Anneliese Midgley – were involved in getting the bill over the line, as well as the joint intelligence committee members Kevan Jones and the Tory MP Jeremy Wright.
Burnham is said to have been keen for the bill to be resolved in Starmer’s last week, wanting it to be a unifying moment for the party.
In his speech, he paid tribute to Starmer, saying the change was “happening because of the prime minister’s commitment to a country based on justice and fairness … He has honoured his commitment to the Hillsborough families.”
The bill has been long delayed after relations with the families backing the bill broke down in January over a potential carve-out for serving intelligence officers, after the government proposed giving security chiefs the veto over whether evidence could put national security at risk if disclosed to an inquiry. Families had proposed a compromise option for a secure means for a judge to view the evidence.
Senior government sources said Starmer had personally been in dialogue with security services chiefs over the past weeks to try to find a breakthrough. The attorney general, Richard Hermer, has also been closely involved in drafting the compromise.
“Even during some of his weakest moments, Keir has spent political capital to make progress – he has put everything into getting Hillsborough over the line,” a government source said.
Families – including those of other disasters such as the Manchester Arena bombing – met Starmer at a reception in Downing Street before the third reading in parliament. “This isn’t the PM’s victory, it’s their victory,” a No 10 source said.
The Home Office, as well as the security services, had concerns about how the duty of candour would be applied to the security services, another reason blamed for the bill’s long delay. But the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has now signed off on the bill, though it will still need to go through the Lords.
The compromise was brokered over the weekend based on proposals from the families about how the duty of candour would apply to serving intelligence officers – which intelligence chiefs had fiercely resisted.
The government had agreed the legislation should cover the security services, but wanted to give agency chiefs the final say over when individual officers could give evidence, a power the families said was unacceptable and could lead to future cover-ups.
The rejection was based on experience of the Manchester Arena inquiry – where MI5 was said by the chair to have submitted an inaccurate account of intelligence it had that might have prevented the bombing.
The families have said since January that the new law’s duty of candour must apply to individual officers – and the compromise that has been reached is that the chair of an inquiry would hear an application from MI5 bosses if they believe some information should be withheld on national security grounds. But crucially for the families, they cannot fail to provide the evidence.
Burnham would have been highly likely to agree a swift compromise to push the bill through once he entered No 10.
As an opposition MP, Burnham introduced the same law as an unsuccessful private member’s bill in 2017 – and will now be prime minister when the bill becomes law almost a decade later.
Hillsborough law campaigners, including those whose family members were killed in the 1989 disaster, welcomed the return of the bill to the Commons.
In a statement, Charlotte Hennessy, Sue Roberts, Steve Kelly and Aspinall said: “We have shown that true power belongs to ordinary people. We did not stay silent, we were not ground down, we were not afraid to speak truth to power.
“This is not just about legislation, but about changing the way the bereaved and survivors are treated and a change in culture, and it is deeply empowering knowing that this protects others for ever.”
As well as the duty of candour on public officials, the bill also includes a major expansion in legal aid to bereaved families, steered by the justice minister Sarah Sackman. The £185m expansion – the largest in a decade – will give bereaved families legal support to navigate the inquest process.
“Access to justice is the right that makes all others real. A massive expansion in legal aid accompanying the law will empower people, whatever their means, to hold authorities to account,” Sackman said.
