'Why do we need a law for people to just tell the truth?'

DEBATE CALLS FOR HILLSBOROUGH LAW TO BE DELIVERED AS PROMISED

- By SAM VOLPE

NORTHUMBERLAND MP Ian Lavery has hit out at the way in which “the establishment circles the wagons” in scandalous cases of wrongdoing by public officials.

He also highlighted that the victims are often predominantly those who are working class.

Speaking in a debate about the need for a Hillsborough Law to be brought in, Mr Lavery, Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington, told parliamentary colleagues it was an “absolute disgrace” that this had yet to happen.

Mr Lavery has been a prominent campaigner on issues such as the contaminated blood scandal and Orgreave, the clashes between striking minors and police in the 1980s, for which an inquiry was announced in July.

He mentioned those disasters among others as he called for the Government to deliver on a promise to force public bodies to abide by a “duty of candour”.

That said, he also highlighted the absurdity that such a law “for people to tell the truth” was even needed at all.

In the Westminster Hall debate, he said: “The issue here, really, is class. When we look at what happened at Hillsborough, what happened at Orgreave, what has happened with contaminated blood, what happened with the nuclear veterans, what happened with Windrush and what has happened at Grenfell, who suffered?

“Working class people - that is the common denominator.