'Some of the people who say we have a victim mentality, we don’t have a victim mentality, we’re fighting for justice, and justice is important and the families are still fighting for justice.'
Labour MP Kim Johnson has told LFF that the Sun newspaper should still be boycotted given the hurt and pain it has caused to the families who lost loved ones in the Hillsborough tragedy.
Johnson told LFF: “When they published those horrendous stories about Liverpool fans, about them stealing and urinating, and being the cause of that awful tragedy in Hillsborough where 96 people died they made out it was our fault.
“When we know it was the police, stewards and other people and Liverpool does have a very long memory. I’d have to say some of the people who say we have a victim mentality, we don’t have a victim mentality, we’re fighting for justice, and justice is important and the families are still fighting for justice.”
She went on to add that the Labour Party should not be using the paper to push its agenda.
Johnson disagreed that the Sun could be used to reach out to a wider audience to convince them to vote Labour and bring about a change in government.
She said: “We don’t talk among ourselves. There’s more than one way to communicate with people and a lot of people access information through radio, TV and through social media and they are amazing platforms to be able to access information so we could use those platforms other than the Sun.”
Her comments come after Labour leader Keir Starmer defended writing for the Sun and conducting interviews with the paper.
Starmer told political correspondent Andrew Misra earlier this week: “It’s very important we have a change of government so we can take our country forward, in order for that to happen I have to make sure that what we have to say is communicated to as many people as possible and that is why I am very happy to work with the Sun, write for the Sun, to do interviews with the Sun or any other media outlet in order to ensure that we make the change we need.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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