Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson has launched a stinging attack on what he describes as an establishment cover-up over Hillsborough, after yesterday’s historic inquest verdict found that the 96 victims of the tragedy were unlawfully killed.
Writing in a special one-off column for the Independent, City Council leader Anderson chose to highlight the way in which campaigners had been obstructed in their pursuit of justice.
Anderson said: “For so long their campaign met with a wall of silence from the powerful. The fans were made to carry the blame for the tragedy, while the Tory gutter press was happy to spew bile onto the memories of the dead.
“This solidarity has been necessary given an establishment cover-up was determined to bury the truth.
“It was not until 2012 when the Hillsborough Independent Panel was given access to the files of the police and other public agencies that we were able to shine a light onto what really went on.
“We discovered how junior police officers were coerced by their superiors into altering their statements. And how the dead were subject to blood-alcohol tests.
“We learned about the briefing operation that was hatched by the police and their political masters that led to the scandalous tabloid media coverage that did so much to blacken the names of the dead and the city of Liverpool.”
And Labour politician blamed what he deemed to be a “sinister conspiracy” for the 27-year delay in reaching an acceptable verdict.
He concluded: “This corruption of the truth – this deliberate, sinister and determined conspiracy to blame the victims and fans for the failures of the authorities – is almost beyond comprehension, but we do know that it happened. The panel and the inquests have proven that much.
A wicked conspiracy to lay the blame at their door has been exposed and vanquished.
Truth has won out, at last.”