Can Keir Starmer get anything right? Just days after yet another U-turn on digital ID, it now seems that his flagship ‘Hillsborough law’ will provoke a Labour rebellion too. The bill is designed to impose a legal duty on public officials to act truthfully and support investigations into the state to ensure wrongdoing is not concealed. But controversy centres on how the legislation will be applied to the intelligence services. Campaigners claim that a government amendment before the Commons could allow security officials to ‘hide serious failures behind a vague claim of national security’.

Now, Andy Burnham has joined the backlash. He and Steve Rotheram, his Liverpool counterpart, have today released a statement claiming the amendment ‘creates too broad an opt-out and risks undermining the spirit of the legislation’ because spy bosses would have the power to decide whether spooks give evidence. Both mayors have asked the government to withdraw its amendment to the draft law ahead of Monday’s Commons debate. Burnham told BBC Radio Manchester:

The bill that the Government is trying to put through says that the head of MI5 or MI6 will decide whether or not its operatives will give evidence. But that, I’m afraid, isn’t acceptable to the families and I support them, I support them in this. We’ve always said it should be the full Hillsborough law, and the full Hillsborough law means that all public servants are required to tell the truth.

As if the Whips’ Office, didn’t have enough headaches…