Keir Starmer’s government have made such a hash of the proposed new Hillsborough law that the families of victims have come out against it. They aren’t the only ones either, with Merseyside-raised Andy Burnham making his feelings clear alongside Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram:
Andy Burnham now leading the revolt over the Hillsborough law ahead of Monday’s votes in the Commons https://t.co/2ZRI3dfbm9
— Sam Coates Sky (@SamCoatesSky) January 17, 2026
The new Hillsborough law — Siding with power against people
The new Hillsborough law is supposed to prevent authorities from covering up scandals like Hillsborough. The problem is that the government has snuck in an exception for MI5, MI6, and GCHQ.
Covering the response from families of those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing, the BBC reported:
Campaigners met Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Wednesday in Parliament to press their case that the Hillsborough Law should apply to individual employees of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and leave no public authority exempt.
Last week, families bereaved by the arena attack in 2017 wrote to him saying MI5 had failed them and argued that the proposed law must apply fully to security services.
But following their meeting, they said the PM had failed to address their concerns.
It’s easy to understand why they’d feel this way. A public inquiry found that MI5 misled the public over the intelligence they had on the suicide bomber before he conducted the attack. Labour MP Anneliese Midgley said that MI5 spent “six years misleading the public and concealing information”.
The proposed amendment would seemingly make such behaviour legal.
As you may expect, people have described the situation as a “betrayal”:
Not that a crystal ball was needed to predict Keir Starmer’s betrayal of the Hillsborough families, but this is what I said last year about the likelihood of him siding with powerful interests against victims of injustice. https://t.co/zvdinwfHxF pic.twitter.com/kua8z2nc8U
— Karl Hansen (@karl_fh) January 15, 2026
A government spokesperson provided a response which says absolutely nothing about the issues people have:
We have listened to their concerns on how the duty of candour will apply to the security services and we will continue to work with them to make the bill as strong as it can possibly be, while never compromising on national security.
Family members of victims, meanwhile, have said they’re “devastated” by the developments. And others have spoken out too, including Labour MP Ian Byrne:
— lan Byrne MP (@IanByrneMP) January 15, 2026
Form
Given Starmer’s history, it’s completely unsurprising to see him siding with dodgy authority figures over ordinary members of the public. As Emily Apple reported for the Canary in 2020:
Keir was DPP when revelations were published about the first known modern ‘spycop’, Mark Kennedy. Kennedy infiltrated environmental and anticapitalist groups between 2003 and 2009. In 2011, a trial of environmental activists accused of plotting to break into Ratcliffe power station collapsed after it emerged that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had covered up vital evidence. This evidence consisted of recordings Kennedy had made of planning meetings. Starmer was present in court the day the case was thrown out.
20 people already prosecuted from the same action had their convictions overturned. And a further 29 people convicted of blocking a train carrying coal to Drax power station also had convictions quashed due to Kennedy’s involvement.
The CPS ordered an investigation into what had happened. Interviewed about the ensuing report in 2011, Starmer said:
“If Sir Christopher Rose had found systemic problems, then I would quite accept perhaps a retrospective look at all the cases. But he didn’t, he found individual failings…
But it was systemic.
You can read more about Starmer’s long history of defending Britain’s crooked establishment here.
Featured image via Mirror
By Willem Moore
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