Hillsborough disaster in the House of Commons to the families of those killed at Hillsborough and to the city of Liverpool as a whole. Echoing his 2012 expression of regret former Home Secretary Jack Straw apologised to the families for the failures of his 1997 review of the disaster. Kelvin MacKenzie, who wrote the now-infamous "The Truth" front page for the "Sun", said that although he was "duped" into publishing his story, that his "heart goes out" to the families of those affected, saying that "It's quite clear today the fans had nothing to do with it". However, MacKenzie did not accept
Life imprisonment in England and Wales petition as an attempt to boost its sales on Merseyside, which had plummeted five years earlier due its controversial reporting of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool F.C. supporters were killed at an FA Cup semi-final. In June 1997, the House of Lords ruled that Howard had acted unlawfully when setting the 15-year minimum terms. This ruling also signalled the end of the Home Secretary's powers to set minimum terms for offenders who committed their crimes before the age of 18. In November 2002, following a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the Home Secretary could no longer