There is no greater legacy for the 97 Liverpool fans and their families than the new law, Brian Reade says, and it is also a long overdue reminder that Labour can bring real change for this country
There’s an old saying that if something is worth having it is worth waiting for. And God knows we’ve waited long enough to see Hillsborough families smiling on the steps of 10 Downing Street after single-handedly forcing our lawmakers to protect voiceless victims of cover-ups.
I’ve stood with them on the steps of many grey buildings over the past three decades when there were no smiles. Just bruises after the latest kicks from an Establishment which refused to admit any guilt in avoidable deaths of their loved ones.
But now, thanks to their efforts, any public officials like the police and politicians in 1989, who hide the truth about a state cover-up, could face jail. There is no greater legacy for the 97 Liverpool fans and their families.
And I’m glad that it’s a Labour government who is driving this law in their name on to the statute books. Because when the last Labour government was in power, they mostly didn’t want to know. For 13 years the likes of Tony Blair and Jack Straw patronised campaigners, refusing to give them an inch in their fight for truth and justice, for fear of upsetting powerful figures in Whitehall and the right-wing media.
Cynics would say Keir Starmer is only acting now because he is struggling to survive with the party faithful, and he couldn’t turn up in Liverpool for this month’s party conference having failed to deliver yet another pledge.
I doubt that the Hillsborough Law alone will see photos of him hung in windows across northern heartlands, but at least it sends out the message that Labour is still the party of the underdog. That its core vision, like its reason for existence, is to give a voice to the voiceless. And I hope Labour realises that restating these principles could be its best weapon in defeating its biggest threat: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Would this cabal of mostly ex-public schoolboys, ex-money men, ever prioritise working-class people being given parity of funding to take on their Establishment? Look at Reform’s attitude to Labour’s Employment Rights Bill. All of their MPs have repeatedly voted against these plans to ban zero-hour contracts and scrap fire and rehire. Yet they get away with portraying themselves as the natural party of the working class.
Labour should be screaming from the rooftops about how these Tommy Robinson soulmates are dividing Britain on race lines while claiming to be the party of national unity. They should expose the voting record of the Tory MPs defecting to Reform to prove how they are not interested in the welfare of ordinary Brits but are self-serving rats leaping from a sinking right-wing ship to a floating one.
They should debunk the only argument Farage has. That all Britain’s problems are down to illegal immigrants, despite that group making up 4% of total immigration. They should be hammering home the point that Farage’s continual playing of the race card as he wraps himself in the flag is a fig leaf for his naked play for personal power and wealth.
With the rising chances of Britain sleepwalking into electing the most right-wing government in its history, Labour needs to make the case as to why, like the Hillsborough Law, them being in power is something worth having. And after a too-long wait, to finally get going.
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