Liverpool wants Cameron apology over Hillsborough comments

The Prime Minister was quoted as saying bereaved families pressing for the release of more information over the 1989 tragedy, in which 96 Liverpool football fans died, were hoping to find something which did not exist.

He reportedly said: “It’s like, what’s the saying, it’s like a blind man, in a dark room, looking for a black cat that isn’t there.”

Mr Cameron also apparently complained about the media coverage Labour MP Andy Burnham was receiving, telling the Liverpool Echo: “It was this Government that agreed to release the Hillsborough documents.

“Yet every time I hear the word ‘Hillsborough’, I see Andy Burnham on the TV.”

Labour’s Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger today called on Mr Cameron to say sorry.

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, she said: “Yesterday it was reported you compared the families of those who died at Hillsborough to a blind man in dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there, and claimed you weren’t getting enough credit for the release of Government papers relating to the tragedy.

“Will you take this opportunity to apologise to the relatives and friends of the 96 victims for these grossly offensive comments?”

Mr Cameron said today: “It is this Government that has done the right thing by opening up the Cabinet papers and trying to help those people find the closure they seek.”

Labour’s Alison McGovern (Wirral South) called on the PM to encourage South Yorkshire Police - the force responsible for crowd control at Sheffield Wednesday’s stadium on the day of the fatal FA Cup semi final - to release its documents.

She called for an independent panel reviewing the tragedy to have “unredacted access to all papers”.

Mr Cameron said: “I’m not fully aware of the situation with regards to the police papers so I don’t want to give a flippant answer across the despatch box.

“The Government has done what it should in terms of the Cabinet papers, but I’m very happy to look at what you raise and come back to you.”

Ministers last week agreed to release papers of detailed discussions by then prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet in the aftermath of the disaster.

A Downing Street spokeswoman later said: “The Prime Minister regrets if any offence has been caused.”

She added: “He didn’t in any way mean any offence.

“His intention was quite the opposite. He was actually expressing his sympathy for how hard it can be to find closure coming to terms with grief.”