The government has pulled an amendment to its proposed Hillsborough law amid concerns from campaigners and MPs that the legislation was being watered down and had become a “car crash” for the government.
The public office (accountability) bill aims to force public officials and contractors to tell the truth after disasters.
Amendments proposed by the government on Wednesday brought spies within the scope of the legislation, subject to the approval of the head of their service, but campaigners argued this would allow those running the security services to decide whether to disclose information.
The government has decided not to move its amendment on Monday, but to instead work with campaigners and the bereaved to bring forward amendments when it reaches the Lords, it is understood. The bill will still return to the Commons for its report stage and third reading as planned.
The late decision follows a series of recent U-turns on controversial policy areas, including farmers’ inheritance tax, digital ID cards and business rates for pubs. A government spokesperson said the decision was intended “to make sure the bill is the strongest it can possibly be, without compromising national security”.
The campaign group Hillsborough Law Now said in a post on X: “We welcome the government listening to the campaign, families, MPs and supporters by withdrawing their security services amendment.
“We shall engage further with government to ensure the bill fully applies to the security services whilst not jeopardising national security.”
The new legislation takes its name from the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, where 97 Liverpool fans were killed as a result of a crush at a football match. An inquest in 2016 found the men, women and children were unlawfully killed and that a catalogue of failings by police and the ambulance services contributed to their deaths.
Speaking on Sunday before the amendment was pulled, MPs who opposed it argued that it could do real harm to Labour’s reputation with campaign groups. Ian Byrne, the MP for Liverpool West Derby, said that promises made to those who lost their loved ones at Hillsborough would be broken if the amendment was included, which he described as “untenable and unacceptable”.
“Families of people who were killed at Hillsborough went to the Labour party conference and were on the stage with the prime minister,” said Byrne. “Commitments were made to them in person and there was a lot of political capital made out of them. And now that promise to them must be delivered.”
Byrne, who was at Hillsborough with his father on the day of the disaster, said that as a survivor he had expected the prime minister to keep his word for the law to be “implemented without being watered down”.
The former shadow chancellor John McDonnellwho was born in Liverpool, called the proposed law with the amendment included “a Hillsborough law, but not the Hillsborough Law”.
McDonnell warned of a risk of “almost permanent damage to the Labour party” and added: “We need a few experienced calm heads to come together and think. We’re now in a situation where we’re hoping the government just pauses tomorrow and doesn’t try to force the bill through, because at the moment it’s looking like a complete car crash.”
Paula Barker, the MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said the government’s insistence on the amendment would feel like “the ultimate betrayal” to the people of Liverpool.
“Let’s just get it right the first time,” she said. “Let’s stop ripping the party apart because, quite frankly, that’s what’s happening. The frontbench is ripping our party apart.”
A government spokesperson said: “This legislation will right the wrongs of the past, changing the balance of power to ensure the state can never hide from the people it should serve and putting a legal duty on officials to respond openly and honestly when things go wrong.
“The bill will make the police, intelligence agencies and the whole of government more scrutinised than they have ever been, but we can never compromise on national security.
“We will continue to work with all parties to make sure the bill is the strongest it can possibly be, without compromising national security.”
