It will also be the first in response to an e-petition after almost 140,000 people – 40,000 more than the qualifying number – backed calls for a parliamentary discussion on the grounds of clear public interest.
Walton MP Steve Rotheram then convinced the cross-party business committee the terms of the e-petition’s motion must be debated and, barring a last-minute government climbdown, voted upon.
The motion calls for all government documents pertaining to the disaster, including cabinet minutes and No 10 discussion papers, to be released in an “unredacted, unedited and uncensored form” to the Hillsborough families and the independent panel currently scrutinising unseen documents relating to the tragedy.
The government, which appealed in the high court against full disclosure, insists it has every intention of releasing all papers to the panel.
But ministers have kept a get-out clause which could allow them to invoke precedence curbs on cabinet minutes from the time when Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
Mr Rotheram believes his debate will put irresistible pressure on ministers.
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Source: FOOTYMAD
