Liverpool are outraged by ‘humiliating’ BBC interview with Kelvin McKenzie

A survivor of the Hillsborough disaster has reacted angrily to the BBC’s decision to interview Kelvin MacKenzie about the resignation of its director general and chief news officer.

Mr McKenzie was editor of The Sun when it published its infamous headline “The Truth” falsely blaming the 1989 tragedy on Liverpool fans.

The head of the Hillsborough Survivors Support Alliance (HSSA) described the decision to turn to McKenzie as an “absolute insult”, while Liverpool FC officials are understood to be “furious”.

The BBC said McKenzie was interviewed as part of a news package on Sunday evening that “solicited a range of views from people across the media industry”.

Director General Tim Davie and BBC News chief executive Deborah Torres announced they would resign on Sunday after a leaked internal memo was published in The Telegraph.

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

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

The club is understood to be “angry and disappointed” about the decision to hold the interview.

MacKenzie, 79, apologized in 2012 and said he had been “completely deceived” about the facts surrounding the Hillsborough disaster, but the newspaper remains boycotted by many on Merseyside.

A new set of investigations in 2016 concluded that the 97 victims of the disaster were unlawfully killed and that fans did not cause the deadly stampede at the end of Leapings Lane.

Peter Scarfe, president of the HSSA, said: “It is an absolute insult, a despicable insult to the memories and families of the 97.”

“It’s absolutely humiliating, I can’t believe they would even think about talking to someone like him.”

Mr Scarfe said survivors like him had been “battered for decades” by the false narrative published by The Sun newspaper the day after the disaster.

“I keep hearing it on the terraces and across social media – ‘The Sun was right’ and the usual comments they make – it’s shocking to think they would go for it.”

Speaking to BBC News on Sunday, McKenzie said the resignations were “the right thing to do, and this was an issue that will never go away”.

Regarding editing Trump’s speech, McKenzie said: “If you can’t be trusted with that [the speech of the US president] What can you trust?”

Liverpool supporters’ union Spirit of Shankly reacted with “outrage and utter disbelief” at the decision to include Mr McKenzie in a debate on “journalistic integrity”.

She said: “There is no need to be reminded of the lies and slander he promoted, not just in relation to Hillsborough, which still affect people today, making it incomprehensible that the BBC would give him a platform to talk about standards and ethics in journalism.”

“Quite offensive.”

As Ian Byrne, MP for Liverpool West Derby, posted on X: “You can’t make up for it.

“The urgent need to reform the British media was perfectly exemplified by the BBC Breakfast Show calling on Kelvin MacKenzie to talk about integrity in journalism.

“This is someone who spread truly horrific lies and distortions – which have now been completely discredited – about Hillsborough victims and survivors in tragedy after tragedy.

“Lies that still cause so much harm to so many today.

“Shame on BBC Breakfast.”