Families bereaved by the Hillsborough disaster have urged Sir Keir Starmer to reconsider the reported appointment of a former Sun editor to a senior government role.
David Dinsmore, who edited the tabloid newspaper from 2013 to 2015 and is now the chief operating officer of its parent company News UK, is expected to become permanent secretary for communications.
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In a letter to the prime minister, Hillsborough families have claimed he is “manifestly unsuitable” for the role because of his association with The Sun, which is widely reviled on Merseyside because of its reporting of the tragedy.
In 1989, four days after the stadium crush, The Sun’s front page had the headline ‘The Truth’ and included unfounded claims that some Liverpool fans had urinated on police officers resuscitating the dying, and that some had stolen from the dead.
The reporting led to a city-wide boycott that remains in place to this day.
The letter to Sir Keir said: “After the Hillsborough disaster in the midst of unimaginable suffering among the bereaved and the survivors, the Sun newspaper published vicious lies about the conduct of fans.
“Graphic and false allegations cast the deceased and those who survived as barbaric, feckless and inhumane.”
The signatories, which include survivors and victims of other scandals, called Mr Dinsmore “manifestly unsuitable for public appointment”.
They also highlighted delays to the long-promised Hillsborough Law, adding: “This appointment gives us less reason to trust the government.
“It risks damaging public confidence in the state among those affected by Hillsborough, everyone connected to Liverpool, and all who feel solidarity with them.”
The Sun apologised for its coverage of Hillsborough in 2012, after an independent panel concluded that no Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster, and that the main cause was failings by police which were subsequently covered up.
In 2016, an inquest jury found the victims were unlawfully killed.
Charlotte Hennessy, who lost her father Jimmy Hennessy in the tragedy when she was six years old, told Sky News the claims in the Sun “is one of the main reasons why we had to fight for so long”, as she urged the prime minister to “backtrack on appointing someone so unsuitable for public office as Dinsmore”.
The decision has also been criticised by Liverpool’s Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, who called the appointment a “deeply insensitive choice”.
“The paper Dinsmore once led printed falsehoods that caused unimaginable pain. That shouldn’t be brushed off as a footnote in his CV – it should be a red line,” the former Labour MP said on X.
Liverpool MPs Ian Byrne, Paula Barker, and Kim Johnson have also written to the prime minister to express concerns.
They said that a key requirement of Hillsborough Law, which Sir Keir has promised to put on the statute books in full, is to ensure that senior government officials and civil servants would be legally compelled to tell the truth following a tragedy at the hands of the state.
Their letter said: “What sort of message do you believe your appointment of Dinsmore into a senior Government role sends to Hillsborough families and survivors, who have lived through so much pain and suffering at the hands of the publication he has previously edited?”.
Mr Dinsmore’s appointment was first reported by The Telegraph, which described the role as a new position created after the prime minister voiced concerns about government communications late last year.
The appointment has not been officially confirmed.
Number 10 has declined to comment when contacted by Sky News.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said no appointment had yet been made, so they would not comment on Dinsmore.
