SCREENWRITER Jimmy McGovern has hit out at the “extraordinary” delays to the introduction of a Hillsborough law.

Mr McGovern's Bafta-winning 1996 drama Hillsborough drew attention to the families’ fight for justice.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had pledged to bring in the law creating a duty for public bodies to tell the truth in the aftermath of major disasters, as well as legal aid for families, by the 36th anniversary of the tragedy.

This passed on April 15 but Downing Street said that more time was needed to redraft it, amid fears it had been watered down and would not include a legal duty of candour.

Mr McGovern said: “I just think it’s extraordinary. What’s going on there is people are demanding the right to lie.

“That’s what it’s all about. They don’t want a law that will tell public officials that they must tell the truth.

“It killed 97 people, Hillsborough, and so they are demanding the right to lie over another Hillsborough. 'We demand the right to lie again.’ Extraordinary.”

Earlier this month, the House of Commons blocked an attempt to introduce the Bill by Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne.

Mr McGovern’s drama told the story of the tragedy at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, in which 97 men, women and children died, and examined the build-up and aftermath.

It has been credited as a key part in the families’ fight for justice, which saw original inquest verdicts overturned and new inquests which found that the victims were unlawfully killed.

But the writer said that his work did not change anything, apart from the agenda.