Writer Jimmy McGovern says delays to Hillsborough Law are ‘extraordinary’

Delays to the introduction of a Hillsborough Law are “extraordinary”, Jimmy McGovern, who wrote a docudrama about the disaster, has said.

McGovern, whose Bafta-winning 1996 drama Hillsborough drew attention to the families’ fight for justice, said he had been following the progress of the legislation, which would include a duty for public bodies to tell the truth in the aftermath of major disasters, as well as legal aid for families.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had pledged to bring in the law by the 36th anniversary of the tragedy, which was on April 15, but Downing Street said more time was needed to redraft it, amid fears it had been watered down and would not include a legal duty of candour.

Jimmy McGovern told the PA news agency:

“I just think it’s extraordinary. What’s going on there is people are demanding the right to lie.

“That’s what it’s all about.

“They don’t want a law that will tell public officials that they must tell the truth.

“It killed 97 people, Hillsborough, and so they are demanding the right to lie over another Hillsborough. ‘We demand the right to lie again’. Extraordinary.”

An attempt by Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne to introduce the Bill was blocked in the House of Commons earlier this month.

McGovern’s drama told the story of the tragedy at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, in which 97 men, women and children died, and examined the build-up and aftermath.

It has been credited as a key part in the families’ fight for justice, which saw original inquest verdicts overturned and new inquests which found that the victims were unlawfully killed.

McGovern said his work did not change anything, apart from the agenda.

He said: “The change was all brought about by the sheer determination of the Hillsborough families.

“But I take great pleasure in the fact that my docudrama did change the agenda for a short time.”

He said writing drama offered the opportunity to give a different perspective on an issue.

“That’s why the powers that be are always sniffy about docudrama, because the camera goes to the places where they don’t want it to go,” he said.

The writer said he was in a Manchester pub in 1982 when news came through that Argentine Navy cruiser the ARA General Belgrano had been sunk by the British during the Falklands War.

He said: “People in the pub stood up and cheered.

“And I said to myself, they should be on that ship. They should see what it’s like.

“Well, the camera can do that. The camera fights against that kind of cheap, easy, bloodthirsty reaction.”

Jimmy McGovern’s new drama, Unforgivable, airs on BBC Two at 9pm on Thursday and will be available on BBC iPlayer.

Visit our brand new platform The Northern Guide to see what’s good up North.