Inquiry demand follows documents leak

The leaked papers revealed that a senior Merseyside police officer told Thatcher that “drunken” Liverpool fans were to blame for the disaster which claimed the lives of 96 football supporters at the Sheffield stadium.

Shadow health minister and MP for Leigh, Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and Liverpool Walton MP Steve Rotheram made the call for a probe in a joint statement issued today.

“Our thoughts are with the Hillsborough families today who should not have to learn about these appalling revelations in this way,” they said.

“This unhelpful action must not be allowed in any way to undermine the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s crucial task of telling, once and for all, the whole truth of the tragedy.

“These documents confirm what the families and the people of Liverpool have long believed — that, in the hours and days after Hillsborough, an orchestrated Establishment campaign began to shift the blame for what happened off the police and onto the Liverpool supporters.”