Labour pulled its entire Hillsborough Law on Sunday night after a backlash from victims’ families and backbenchers.
Ministers had first been forced to abandon planned changes to the flagship legislation – intended to prevent future establishment cover-ups – after angry complaints that it would protect the security services.
The partial climbdown came on Sunday evening after Whitehall officials failed during weekend talks to convince campaigners to accept its proposed amendments to the Public Office (Accountability) Bill.
Under the proposed ‘duty of candour’, it will be illegal for the authorities to withhold information from investigations but the Government wanted to give the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ the power to decide what they could disclose.
Ministers had hoped that talks could continue and amendments could be made when the bill reached the Lords if an agreement could be found with bereaved families.
However at 10pm on Sunday it emerged that the campaigners were unhappy with the issues being dealt with in the upper house, prompting Government whips to pull the entire bill.
It means that the proposed Third Reading, due to take place in the Commons on Monday, will no longer go ahead.
The Bill, whose sponsor is Justice Secretary David Lammy, was first debated in November and has already been through the committee stage of scrutiny in the Commons.
The Hillsborough Law, known officially as the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, was meant to prevent institutional coverups following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster when 97 Liverpool fans died
Keir Starmer appeared on stage at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool last year with campaigner Margaret Aspinall, whose son died in the 1989 tragedy. Now he is pulling back the law after she praised him for keeping his word
Sources confirmed the bill would be pulled and return at a later date to allow for further discussions.
A Government spokesman said: ‘This legislation will right the wrongs of the past, changing the balance of power to ensure the state can never hide from the people it should serve and putting a legal duty on officials to respond openly and honestly when things go wrong.
‘The bill will make the police, intelligence agencies and the whole of government more scrutinised than they have ever been. We must get this right to keep the country safe.
‘We welcome continued support from victims and their families, making sure the Bill is the strongest it can possibly be while never compromising on national security.’
It risks being seen as yet another U-turn by Labour, although ministers will remain desperate to get the legislation through because Sir Keir Starmer has made a personal commitment to it.
He appeared on stage at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool last year with campaigner Margaret Aspinall, whose son died in the 1989 tragedy, and she praised him for having ‘kept his word’ by introducing the bill but added it must be brought in ‘in all its entirety’.
Justice Secretary David Lammy is the sponsor of the law which was first debated in the Commons in November last year
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham got involved to criticise the law giving security services ‘too broad an opt-out’
Earlier on Sunday a Labour MP who was at the Hillsborough disaster – in which 97 Liverpool fans were killed and which led to the biggest police cover-up in British history – said it would ‘break my heart’ to vote against the bill.
Ian Byrne told the BBC before the Government climbdown: ‘The Hillsborough Law was meant to change the culture of cover-ups, which have caused so much harm in this country. And unfortunately, as it stands now, we feel that’s still a live threat.’
