Andy Burnham: The British state has a dangerous lack of accountability ...Middle East

The British state continues to avoid accountability over major scandals that cost lives, including the Hillsborough football disaster and the infected blood “calamity” that saw thousands contract fatal diseases, Andy Burnham has said.

The Greater Manchester Mayor has pledged to introduce the so-called Hillsborough Law “in its entirety” if he became Prime Minister as he accused the Government of “re-traumatising” victims of the contaminated blood scandal.

In an interview marking the second anniversary of the Infected Blood Inquiry report, Burnham, who is seeking a return to Parliament via the Makerfield by-election, gave his “absolute support” to campaigners and criticised the Government for creating “new dividing lines” between victims and bereaved families through compensation rules.

It comes as bereaved parents accused the Government of a cruel “cost-cutting exercise” after new compensation rules excluded the vast majority of parents who lost children to the infected blood scandal.

As survivors of the worst treatment disaster in NHS history gathered at St Paul’s Cathedral on Tuesday for the first national memorial service, Burnham said he would “be with them every step of the way”.

‘A catalogue of failures’

The Infected Blood Inquiry found that the scandal – which saw more than 30,000 people infected with diseases including HIV and Hepatitis C through NHS-supplied blood and blood products – was “largely avoidable”.

The final report, published in May 2024, described the scandal as a “calamity” caused by a “catalogue of failures” across governments, the NHS and the medical profession. More than 3,000 people have died, yet no individual has been held accountable.

Burnham has drawn parallels between infected blood, the Hillsborough stadium disaster which saw 97 people die in 1989 and the Grenfell tower block fire which cost 72 lives in 2017, warning that the British state repeatedly fails to deliver accountability after major injustices.

Speaking to The i Paper, Burnham said: “This is sadly the bit – the accountability bit – that the British state still can’t do. Obviously, that was the case with Hillsborough. Ninety-seven people unlawfully killed, with one minor conviction against an individual and nothing else.

“Again, in the case of infected blood and the lies told. Terrible injustice in terms of the pervasive nature of the cover-up, and yet, again seemingly there is no culpability. What is it about the British state that it won’t hold people to account?”

He added: “You can’t have faith in politics and Government unless there’s real accountability, and the lack of it is dangerous. For the way the country is run and the way people feel about things. Yeah, we all want to feel good about the country – patriotic – and yet it lets people down and it’s not healthy.”

Duty of candour

Burnham has long backed the introduction of Hillsborough Law, which would place a legal duty of candour on public authorities and officials, requiring them to tell the truth and cooperate fully with investigations and inquiries.

He became closely associated with the Hillsborough families during his time as culture secretary and later as health secretary and has argued the law could have prevented cover-ups in scandals including contaminated blood and Grenfell.

Despite repeated promises from successive governments, the legislation has yet to be implemented amid disputes over its scope and resistance within Whitehall over the extent of the legal obligations it would place on public bodies and officials, including the Security Services.

Burnham said: “I’m committed to the Hillsborough Law in its entirety. We call it Hillsborough Law, but it could be the Infected Blood Law because I left Department of Culture Media and Sport in 2008 and went to Department of Health, and it was that drawing of parallels, that’s how I first started to join the dots on infected blood.

“And in many ways the duty of candour in this instance would have just changed everything, wouldn’t it? If I wasn’t told the truth when I was Health Secretary, what chance did the families have?”

Burnham also criticised the timing of Rishi Sunak’s decision to call the 2024 general election just days after publication of the infected blood inquiry report.

“The calling of the general election straight after the inquiry left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “The enormity of what had been revealed – we needed days to absorb it.”

‘‘Divide and rule’ compensation tactics

Burnham, who served as health secretary between 2009 and 2010, has long campaigned on behalf of contaminated blood victims. In his final speech to Parliament in 2017, he described the scandal as a “criminal cover-up on an industrial scale”, arguing that patients and families had been repeatedly denied the truth over decades.

Describing infected blood as a “colossal injustice”, Burnham said the scale of the disaster had still not fully registered nationally.

“The number of lives blighted by infected blood is colossal,” he said. “It still feels that people don’t truly get it.”

Burnham also attacked what he described as “divide and rule” tactics in the compensation arrangements for victims and their families. The controversy centres on the Government’s decision to introduce a 50 per cent uplift to compensation awards for bereaved parents whose children died under the age of 18, but not for parents whose children were adults when they died.

According to data compiled by the Tainted Blood Bereaved Parents Support Group, around 89 per cent of affected families fall into the excluded category. In a letter delivered to Downing Street on Monday, campaigners warned that the rules effectively “devalue” the lives of victims based on an arbitrary age threshold.

Rosemary Calder, writing on behalf of the group, said: “Our children are always our children, always loved unconditionally in the same way, no matter what their age.”

She also described her own family’s agony over her late son, Nicky, who would have celebrated his 52nd birthday last week. Instead, for the past 27 years, his family has spent his birthday visiting his grave. Nicky, who contracted HIV and Hepatitis C from contaminated blood products, died in 1999, aged 25.

Reflecting on the compensation arrangements, Burnham said: “This is where these things go wrong, isn’t it? The divide and rule sort of tactics… it doesn’t feel fair, does it?”

‘The fight needs to be forever’

“I know that new injustices have crept in over the last two years, and the fight needs to be forever,” Burnham added. “They [the Government] should just be making full amends to everybody, not drawing new dividing lines between people, between parents whose children died under 18 and those over.””

Among those attending Tuesday’s service of recognition, remembrance and reflection for the contaminated blood victims, were the Prime Minister and members of the Royal Family. Burnham, however, said he was “gutted” not to attend himself.

His campaigning in the Makerfield by-election is backed by figures connected to some of Britain’s most high-profile justice campaigns. He is widely expected to launch a challenge against Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins the by-election.

Families of Hillsborough victims are expected to campaign on his behalf in Makerfield, underlining his long association with the fight for accountability.

‘There will be a lot of rough and tumble’

Burnham used the by-election campaign to set out a broader political vision centred on “Manchesterism” – a pitch for more radical devolution and a shift away from what allies describe as Westminster’s overly centralised approach.

He admitted the prospect of returning to frontline national politics had left him feeling “a bit exposed” but suggested he had decided the time had come to act.

“I feel a bit out there, feel a bit exposed, but in life you’ve got to just go for things,” he said. “I was at the [Everton] match with my brothers yesterday, and I was just saying to them, I don’t think I want to live forever where people say you should do this, you should be doing that. At the end of the day, you either do it or you don’t. You either sort of take a moment or you don’t.”

He said he had received encouragement from football supporters during his visit to the Hill Dickinson stadium – contrasting the public reaction with the mood in Westminster.

Even Burnham’s allies admit that standing in Makerfield is a gamble as the seat is one of Reform UK’s target seats.

“I was at Everton yesterday and there were so many people coming up to me and saying Oh my god you’ve got to do this,” he said. “It was kind of nice. It’s one thing the Westminster lot and what they say – there’s a different focus group when you get out there.”

Burnham acknowledged the scrutiny and criticism that would come with a campaign but insisted he was prepared for it.

“Well, there’ll be a lot of rough and tumble, but I mean, just try and ignore it all,” he said.

He said: “The fight is forever. There’s no justice until everyone’s got justice. My support for them will be absolute, whichever position I’m in.”

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