As the rain batters down outside Liverpool's Novia Scotia restaurant, the silence inside is deafening.
Dozens of people are packed in to watch Charlotte Hennessy, who lost her dad Jimmy at Hillsborough when she was just six years old, speak at a Labour conference fringe event advocating for the Hillsborough Law to be put onto the statute book. “There is no law to protect people like me," she says, "w e can’t let our family members die in vain".
Charlotte's dad was a plasterer and, in her words, "going to watch Liverpool play was as normal for him as going to work each day". For 24 years, Charlotte was told her father’s death was due to traumatic asphyxiation, however at the Judge Goldring inquests (2014-2016) it was proven that Jimmy had been left without medical treatment and died as a result of “inhaling copious amounts of stomach contents”.
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Some people are moved to tears as Charlotte recounts her harrowing story; her plight for justice mirrored on the faces of the vast array of campaigners crammed into the city centre restaurant. There's people here from the Toxic Veterans Campaign, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and Justice4Grenfell among many others, but while everyone is driven by their own separate plights, they are united in a fierce collective desire to bring in new measures to prevent sytematic corruption and establishment cover ups.
Earlier this week, the ECHO reported that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is set to back plans to bring in the new Hillsborough Law - also known as the Public Authorities (Accountability) Bill - which will see the creation of new regulations that will help to prevent future injustices where there is state involvement.
Charlotte said: "We’re now in 2022 and 30 years have passed and the level of deception and the depth of the cover ups have trickled through society and into younger generations."
She added: "Unless we start to make a stand, those within public authority will just carry on because they’ll think we’re a walkover but actually we’re not, because I’ve been brought up by Hillsborough mums and Hillsborough dads and I’m not going anywhere.”
Charlotte was joined at this evening's event by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who's been one of the high-profile figures to throw his weight behind the Hillsborough Law Now campaign. Mr Burnham said: “This is a change we need to make so that the next century in this country is different from the last and we never have a situation again where people in a city like this are treated like second class citizens.
"We must be equal in a court of law and that’s why we need a Hillsborough Law now."
As part of the legislation, a Labour government would introduce:
- A duty of candour: to ensure that public authorities and officials proactively cooperate with official investigations – to offer the transparency and accountability they need to succeed
- Legal aid: to entitle victims of disasters or state-related deaths to parity of legal representation during inquests and inquiries, meaning they are funded for lawyers, putting them on a level playing field with public bodies which are represented
- An independent public advocate: to act as a representative for bereaved families that have lost ones in a disaster. They would advocate for their best interests, and establish a panel to review all the evidence, documentation, and data relating to the tragedy - to advise on the course of action most likely to get justice
- A code of ethics: which would require all public authorities to publish a ‘Code of Ethics’ that promotes ethical behaviour, transparency, and candour. This should take account of the Seven Principles of Public Life, provides reasonable protection for whistle-blowers, and offer a complaints system that is accessible to the public.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram also appeared at tonight's event, citing the importance of the lessons learned from Hillsborough in preventing the perpetuating of false narratives following events like May's Champions League final in Paris.
Mayor Rotheram said: “As a 20-year old walking away from Hillsborough I felt absolutely powerless after what I’d witnessed and even more so days later when the lies and smears came out. On May 28 this year, I walked away from a football stadium absolutely emboldened with the lessons that have been learned that we wouldn’t let the false narrative take hold like it did all those years previously.”
The loudest cheer of the night was reserved for Margaret Aspinall, who has been one of the figureheads of the Hillsborough justice campaign since her 18-year-old son James died as a result of the disaster. The campaigner said: "This law is to make sure that something like Hillsborough never happens again.
"The country is in a right mess and I just hope the Labour Party get in and do an awful lot to straighten what's gone wrong and hopefully the Hillsborough Law can be the start of it.
She added: "What angers me is that it's still going on to this day. The corruption within the system needs to be changed and, until we all stick together and stand up, it will never change.”
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