Hillsborough

David Anderson Excerpts

Wednesday 12th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question, but we received the report at 9.30 am, so it clearly has not been possible to make those considerations. The Government often—not always—get a public inquiry report and are able to consider it and put more into lining up all the elements that must come next. In this situation, the report was rightly given to the families first. I have had time for a very brief look and some explanation, but the sort of questions he asks will take longer to answer.

[Mr David Anderson (Blaydon) (Lab)]

In welcoming the Prime Minister’s statement and thanking him and the Leader of the Opposition for what they have said, may I raise one point with the Prime Minister? He has mentioned “new evidence” and “new documentation” a number of times, but the truth is that it is not new—the vast majority was old but buried and concealed. We have heard that the Prime Minister at the time was advised by her private secretary that

“the defensive and…‘close to deceitful’ behaviour of senior South Yorkshire officers was ‘depressingly familiar.’”

We have also been told that the report says that no Government have tried to conceal the truth. The real question for politicians is this: what failures did politicians create in not trying to expose the truth?

[The Prime Minister]

Absolutely. The hon. Gentleman has put his finger on it. When I said “new evidence”, I suppose I meant “newly published evidence”. The inquiry has not uncovered things that did not previously exist—they existed but were not published, so their publication is what is new today. The really important point he makes will take careful consideration, and those in government at the time will want to think this through and provide their own answers. The sense I get from the limited look I have had at the report is that advice went to Ministers that the behaviour was “depressingly familiar” and that the chief constable should resign. The question then is whether the output of that advice resulted in enough action by that Government and subsequent ones to blow away the false narrative that was building up. That is a very important question that people will want to consider.