Keir Starmer recently wrote an article in the Sun, provoking outrage among many Labour Party members. We are reprinting here, one of the more polite protests we have come across, a letter written a few days ago by the Liverpool Walton MP, Dan Carden, to Keir Starmer.
Dear Keir,
I am writing to express the deep hurt that your decision to write for the S*n ‘newspaper’ has caused to the people and communities that I represent in Liverpool Walton, as well as across the city and the wider football community.
As the Liverpool MP who represents Anfield, which sits at the heart of my constituency, I feel compelled to raise my concerns with you directly. My constituency is home to both Liverpool Football Club, 97 of whose fans died as a consequence of the Hillsborough disaster, and Everton Football Club, whose supporters have set aside sporting rivalries to show unwavering solidarity.
It is 32 years since the victims of the Hillsborough disaster left to watch a game of football and never came home. It is nine years since the Hillsborough independent panel report exposed the gross negligence of members of the South Yorkshire police, who, instead of answering for their actions, sought to shift the blame on to those they failed to protect. It is five years since the inquest verdicts found that the victims of the Hillsborough disaster were unlawfully killed, and it is ten weeks since Andrew Devine, who suffered life-changing injuries at Hillsborough, became its 97th fatality.
We now know that witness statements were altered, that the reputation of the victims as impugned, and that lies were fed to the gutter press in one of the most despicable cover-ups in modern history.
The role that the S*n played in this injustice cannot be overstated. Under its infamous headline, ‘The Truth’ there were three subheadings: Some fans picked pockets of victims; Some fans urinated on the brave cops; Some fans beat up PCs giving the kiss of life. The Story read as follows:
“Drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked rescue workers as they tried to revive victims of the Hillsborough soccer disaster, it was revealed last night. Police officers, firemen and ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon by a hooligan element in the crowd. Some thugs rifled the pockets of injured fans as they were stretched out unconscious on the pitch.
“Sheffield MP Irvine Patnick revealed that in one shameful episode a gang of Liverpool fans noticed that the blouse of a girl trampled to death had risen above her breasts. As a policeman struggled in vain to revive her, the mob jeered: ‘Throw her up here and we will **** her’
“One furious policeman who witnessed Saturday’s carnage stormed, ‘As we struggled in appalling conditions to save lives, fans standing further up the terrace were openly urinating on us and the bodies of the dead.”
There has been no greater perversion of words in British media history. These lies, designed to deflect blame away from those responsible for the disaster and on to the victims, have haunted the families and survivors ever since. Despite being discredited by successive inquiries, the toxicity of these baseless allegations endures to this day.
This coverage prompted a boycott of the S*n in Liverpool, taken up by Labour-led councils across the North West region and many parts of the football community.
During the leadership hustings in Liverpool back in January 2020, you yourself chose to attack the S*n and said, “I certainly won’t be giving any interview to The S*n during the course of this campaign”, to thunderous applause. Many of those listening, who will have presumed that your principled stance would endure beyond the leadership campaign, unsurprisingly now feel betrayed.
It has been suggested that your decision was an electoral tactic to reach Tory voters. However, I believe you and your team have made the wrong call. Firstly, there can be no justification for such a profound insult to the bereaved families and survivors. Secondly, when we are facing a crisis of trust in politics and politicians, breaking the spirit of your promises in this way will do far more electoral damage than good.
If there is a ‘Red Wall’ then Liverpool is its strongest brick. There is no electoral success to be found in treating Labour’s base with contempt.
I am aware that you have been invited to visit Liverpool to meet with families and survivors of the Hillsborough disaster. I urge you to take up this offer in order to better understand the strength of feeling on this issue. I believe that a genuine effort to address the hurt caused by your actions would be well received.
I encourage you to engage with local representatives and communities as soon as possible, apologise to the people of Liverpool and commit to respecting the boycott in future. I believe this would go some way to maintaining faith in the Labour Party in its most loyal city.
I look forward to your response,
Yours sincerely,
Dan Carden,
Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton
