Ninety-seven men, women and children were unlawfully killed at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final in Hillsborough was a tragedy. However, the subsequent 36 year struggle for justice has been defined by a deliberate, multi-layered campaign by South Yorkshire Police (SYP) to evade responsibility. Successive governments failed to challenge or actively supported the cover-up.
Finally on 2 December a 13-year investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found that 12 former officers had cases to answer for gross misconduct, including Peter Wright, SYP chief constable at the time.
The report concluded that the officers should have faced gross misconduct charges. However, so much time has passed that all the officers have either retired or died, meaning no one will face punishment. The report is the most recent of decades of inquiries, investigations in a cross-generational fight for justice.
While the Hillsborough families welcomed the report itself, they have been clear that it is far too little and thirty-six years too late. Margaret Aspinall, whose son was killed, commented, ‘When you think of all the 97 who died, unlawfully killed, and yet no one’s been held to account. To me that’s a disgrace.’
No justice
In 1989, SYP command very quickly instigated a coordinated strategy to deflect blame from their own incompetence. This primarily focused on Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield’s fatal order to open an exit gate, causing an influx into already overfull terraces.
This action was blamed on the victims instead. Officers were instructed to gather negative comments about fans’ behaviour, fostering a false narrative of drunken, ticketless hooligans.
The press loyally took up this narrative, fed to them by SYP, labelling fans as ‘drunken hooligans’ and ‘wild animals’. The worst was The Sun, which four days after the deaths carried the infamous front page, claiming as ‘THE TRUTH’ that fans ‘picked the pockets of victims’, ‘urinated on the brave cops,’ and ‘beat up a PC giving the kiss of life’.
The government and justice system closed ranks with the police. Lord Justice Taylor’s 1989 inquiry unequivocally blamed police mismanagement. However, the 1990 official inquest under Coroner Dr. Stefan Popper controversially ruled that all evidence after 3:15 PM on the day was inadmissible.
This excluded the emergency response failures. As a result, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided in 1990 not to bring any criminal charges, citing insufficient evidence.
The most damning evidence of a systemic cover-up emerged in 1997, when scrutiny by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith revealed that SYP had orchestrated the alteration of 164 officers’ statements, removing criticisms and negative comments. Despite this the Labour government’s Jack Straw and Tony Blair explicitly blocked a new inquiry.
A confidential note revealed Blair scribbled ‘Why? What is the point?’ on the proposal. Straw sought a judge to provide ‘acceptable’ cover for their inaction, thereby obstructing the course of justice for another decade and a half.
The families’ indefatigable campaign finally forced a breakthrough with the formation of the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012. Its forensic review of over 450,000 documents exposed the full, shocking extent of the cover-up. While this led to an apology from David Cameron, the quashing of the original inquests, and new criminal investigations, the system continued to fail the families.
The 2016 inquest verdict of unlawful killing was a monumental vindication, yet subsequent prosecutions collapsed. Duckenfield was acquitted in 2019 after a retrial, and in 2021, a trial of two former officers and the force’s solicitor for perverting the course of justice was halted by a judge, who directed acquittals.
This pattern of state resistance culminated in the government’s 2023 response to Bishop James Jones’ report. While offering apologies and adopting a ‘charter for families’ the government rejected Jones’ proposed ‘Hillsborough Law’ that would impose a legal duty of candour on public officials and provide funding for families at inquests.
Starmer’s Labour finally introduced the Hillsborough Law in September 2025. However, this won’t be applied retrospectively. SYP will face no consequences for their failures on 15 April 1989 or the decades of lies and cover-ups.
Over the past 36 years the Hillsborough families have inspired countless others, from the family of Stephen Lawrence to the Orgreave Truth and Justice, and the Horizon scandal campaigns. The Hillsborough campaign has exposed a system that consistently shielded itself at every level, from the police to judges, to coroners and finally governments of all stripes.
The labour movement, whose rank and file members have long supported the Hillsborough families, needs to dedicate itself to uncovering corruption wherever it is manifested, and smashing the capitalist system it serves.
