Hillsborough survivor anger at BBC MacKenzie interview

A Hillsborough disaster survivor has reacted with fury to the BBC's decision to interview Kelvin MacKenzie about the resignation of its director general and news CEO.

Mr MacKenzie was the editor of the Sun newspaper when it ran its notorious 'The Truth' headline falsely blaming the 1989 tragedy on Liverpool fans.

The decision to turn to Mr MacKenzie was described as "an absolute insult" by chairman of the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance (HSSA), while Liverpool FC officials are understood to be "furious".

The BBC said Mr MacKenzie had been interviewed as part of a news package on Sunday evening which "sought a range of views from people across the media industry".

Director general Tim Davie and CEO of BBC News Deborah Turness announced they would step down on Sunday after a leaked internal memo was published in the Telegraph newspaper.

The memo said an episode of Panorama had misled viewers by splicing together parts of a speech by US President Donald Trump on 6 January 2021 to make it appear as if he had explicitly encouraged the Capitol Hill riot.

Liverpool FC confirmed it had made contact with BBC Breakfast and BBC News about the footage which was repeated three times across Monday morning's programme.

The club is understood to be "furious and disappointed" about the decision to run the interview.

Mr MacKenzie, 79, apologised in 2012 and said he had been "completely duped" over the facts about the Hillsborough disaster, but the newspaper is still boycotted by many in Merseyside.

A fresh set of inquests in 2016 concluded that the 97 victims of the disaster were unlawfully killed and fans did not cause the deadly crush in the Leppings Lane end.

Peter Scarfe, chairman of HSSA, said: "It's an absolute insult, a despicable insult to the memories and families of the 97.

"It's purely offensive, I just can't believe they would even consider speaking to someone like him."

Mr Scarfe said survivors like him had been "beaten down for decades" by the false narrative printed in the Sun the day after the disaster.

"I'm still listening to that on terraces and over social media - 'The Sun was right' and the usual comments they make - it's shocking to think that they would go to him."

Speaking on the BBC News Channel on Sunday, Mr MacKenzie said the resignations were "the right thing to do - this was an issue that was never going away".

On the editing of the Trump speech, Mr MacKenzie said: "If you can't be trusted on that [the speech of the US president] what can you be trusted on?"

Liverpool supporters' union The Spirit of Shankly reacted with "anger and total disbelief" at the decision to include Mr MacKenzie in a discussion about "journalistic integrity".

It said: "No reminder is needed of the lies and smears he peddled, not only in relation to Hillsborough, that continue to affect people today, which makes it incomprehensible that the BBC would give him a platform to talk about standards and ethics in journalism.

"Utterly offensive."

Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby, also posted on X: "You couldn't make it up.

"The urgent need for reform of the British media has just been perfectly exemplified by BBC Breakfast bringing on Kelvin MacKenzie to talk about integrity in journalism.

"This is the individual who published truly horrific - and now completely discredited - lies and smears about Hillsborough victims and survivors in the S*n after the tragedy.

"Lies that continue to cause so much harm to so many even today.

"Shame on BBC Breakfast."