How the Kop’s chants propelled Andy Burnham to fight for Hillsborough justice

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He was right to feel worried as he stood before an emotionally charged Kop that day because there was a strong sense of betrayal from a Labour government that had been in power for 12 of the 20 years since the disaster and had done nothing to facilitate calls to unearth the truth.Andy Burnham said he ‘half-expected’ the ‘justice’ chants during his speech at Anfield on the 20th anniversary of Hillsborough. But when he said he brought a message from the prime minister that the victims would never be forgotten, for the first time ever at one of these memorial services pockets of the Kop began to boo and jeer, there was a shout of “When do we get justice?” and a scream of “Hypocrite.” It shocked us all and stopped Burnham in his tracks.

Because you not only insult the living, you insult the dead.Wisely, Burnham nodded at the Kop with an “I get it” expression. When the Kop began chanting for justice our former chairman Trevor Hicks looked at me as if to say: ‘What have you done, Margaret?

This time it wasn’t snarls, boos and chants of “hypocrite” he faced on the Kop but a banner that read “Thank You, Andy Burnham”. He told them: “Five years ago things changed, not because of me but because of all of you.