Burnham joined by labour leader at Hillsborough inquests

ANDY Burnham was joined by labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn at the ongoing inquests into the Hillsborough tragedy.
(From the left) MP Steve Rotherham, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow home secretary Andy Burnham arrive at the Hillsborough inquest in Warrington(From the left) MP Steve Rotherham, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow home secretary Andy Burnham arrive at the Hillsborough inquest in Warrington
(From the left) MP Steve Rotherham, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow home secretary Andy Burnham arrive at the Hillsborough inquest in Warrington

The Labour leader did not speak to press outside the coroner’s court and went into the hearing to sit in the seats reserved for observers and families of the 96 Liverpool fans killed in Britain’s worst sporting disaster.

Mr Corbyn attended the hearing in Warrington as the Coroner Sir John Goldring continues summing up the evidence in the case, the longest-running jury inquest in British legal history, which began in March 2014.

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Shadow home secretary Burnham, local Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram and Mr Corbyn are expected to speak to families of some of the fans who died during a morning break in the hearings shortly.

A spokeswoman said Mr Corbyn had come to the hearings “as an observer”.

Mr Burnham has been credited with helping the families to campaign for new inquests, quashing the verdicts of accidental death in the original inquests held in 1991.

He raised the families’ campaign for new inquests at Cabinet level with then prime minister Gordon Brown, leading to the setting up of the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

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The inquests have been sitting for almost two years, with the jury hearing evidence into the deaths of the 96 fans crushed to death on the Leppings Lane terrace of the ground as the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest got under way in Sheffield on April 15 1989.

The jury is expected to retire to consider their verdicts on March 2.