Tory minister hid in a cupboard to avoid grieving Hillsborough families

14 September 2023 , 17:33

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Fans fought for decades to get justice (Image: Getty Images)

A minister hid in a cupboard to avoid meeting families of the Hillsborough disaster victims, ex-PM Theresa May revealed.

The mother of one teenager who died in the 1989 tragedy has called the unnamed minister “a disgrace”. As Home Secretary, Mrs May helped pave the way to new inquests, which in 2016 found the 97 Liverpool supporters were unlawfully killed. But she said her decision to continue the work of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, set up by Labour, was met with resistance when the Tory-led coalition government won power in 2010.

She said: “There was just a sense of ‘why should we do this, this has been going on for so long, let’s just close the door on it’. There was, I’m told, but this is third or fourth hand, one secretary of state who hid in a cupboard rather than meet the families.” Mrs May, 66, did not reveal the name of the minister.

Campaigner Margaret Aspinall, who lost her son James, 18, at Hillsborough, said: “It is insulting. What was he or she afraid of in meeting the families? What was it they were afraid of that they did not want to meet the families, who were only fighting for the truth? When you hear about it you think ‘this is an absolute disgrace’.”

Margaret Aspinall (Liverpool Echo)

Mrs Aspinall, 76, said she was not surprised to hear some politicians and officials did not want to know about Hillsborough. She added: “When I first met Theresa May, she was Home Secretary... I can honestly say I got good vibes from her right away. She did actually listen. She made promises and fulfilled everything.

Theresa May savages Tories over five year delay to Hillsborough report response

“Politics does not come into it, it is about somebody doing the right thing and she did do the right thing and I admire her and respect her for that. She fought and kept it going and then she made sure that all documentation that the police were holding was released to our lawyers. So we would never have had the second inquests without her and for that I am grateful.”

Mrs May was Prime Minister from 2016 to 2019, having served as David Cameron ’s Home Secretary for six years. Speaking before her book, The Abuse of Power, was published this week, she said the lessons of Hillsborough had still not been learned and there was a natural instinct for public bodies to “close up”.

The first inquests into the fatal crush, at an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground, returned verdicts of accidental death in 1991. The HIP report in 2012 found the cause of the crush was a “lack of police control”, with fans blameless. The report led to new inquests, which returned verdicts of unlawful killing in 2016. The death toll rose from 96 to 97 when Andrew Devine, who was seriously injured in the crush, died in 2021.

Paul Byrne