Staunch Hillsborough campaigners MPs Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham share their thanks for the support received and how the landmark report has moved the fight for justice forward.

One year ago today, the full horror of Hillsborough was revealed to a disbelieving nation.

In Liverpool, the truth was widely known. But, for the rest of the country, the scale of the police cover-up and the depth of deception were never fully understood:

• 164 police statements altered to remove any criticism of the Police and blame on the fans.
• Police National Computer checks on the dead.
• Blood alcohol levels taken from those victims, including a ten-year-old boy.
• Police colluding with the press to cast slurs against the Liverpool supporters and a grieving city to protect themselves.
• And the most devastating finding of all: that 41 of the victims were alive past the arbitrary 3:15 cut off set by the Coroner and possibly could have been saved if there had been a proper emergency response.

The full truth about Hillsborough may never have been known were it not for the solidarity of thousands, like the Mirror and its readers, who never left the side of the families through the dark hours of those years in the wilderness.

We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for sticking with them.

And because you helped us unlock the truth, you have brought the prospect of justice to within reach.

Since the Panel report was published, huge progress has been made which would have been unimaginable a few years ago:

• The victims, survivors and families of the 96 have been exonerated from any blame and received an apology from the Prime Minister.
• The High Court quashed the original unsound inquests verdicts, which had concluded all victims had died accidentally. As the families have always said, Hillsborough was not 96 accidents.
• A new Inquest has been ordered to start in 2014 and, thanks a change in Coronial Laws, it does not have to be held in the same place as the original - sparing the families the heartache of revisiting Sheffield.

However, despite the report answering many of the families' longstanding questions, two pieces of the jigsaw remain missing.

24 years on, because of the inadequacy of the original inquest, victims' family and friends still do not know exactly what happened to their loved-ones - how and why they died.

Until the new medical evidence is examined at the new Inquest, questions will remain over whether their loved ones could have survived. For some of the families, these painful answers will provide the resolution they have longed for and may even mean they can finally collect their death certificates.

Secondly, no-one has been criminally charged despite the overwhelming evidence of gross negligence and cover-up. Last year, we said that our campaign was not about retribution but about responsibility. A year on that still stands but now it is clear that it is also about resources. The IPCC and CPS are investigating the conduct of the police, press, Football Association, Sheffield Wednesday Football Club, South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Services, stadium engineers and Sheffield City Council. It is one of the biggest criminal investigations in our country's history.

This of course will take time. We understand that but people will feel frustration and, given the past, suspect the worst. Consequently, the Home Secretary must continue to guarantee that that there are no impediments to the progress of the investigation. Today would be a good day for her to reaffirm that - that nothing will stand in the way of justice for the 96.

We look back on the momentous events of last year with mixed emotions.

We know that this injustice on this scale could probably not have happened to another city and we feel angry about that. Politicians and press who stoked anti-Liverpool feeling created the conditions in which this happened. How else could an entire city be crying injustice for so long and go unheard?

But there is a huge positive too.

The developments we have seen, which have shook the foundations of the establishment, is in the end a huge vindication of our city and its values.

People here know the true meaning of solidarity. Red and blue together. Nowhere else, faced with this onslaught, could have come through in the way we have.

That's, in the end, the great positive that come out of tragedy: people who stick together will win together.

Source: Daily Mirror