The Sun (United Kingdom) a free special issue of "The Sun" was distributed by the Royal Mail to 22 million homes in England. The promotion, which did not include a Page 3 topless model, was announced in mid-May and was believed to be the first such freesheet issued by a UK national newspaper. The boycott in Merseyside following the newspaper's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 meant that copies were not dispatched to areas with a Liverpool postcode. Royal Mail employees in Merseyside and surrounding areas were given special dispensation by their managers to allow them not to handle the publication "on a
Hillsborough disaster on. Is there, perhaps, a lesson there for the Hillsborough campaigners?" Popplewell was criticised for the comments, including a rebuke from a survivor of the Bradford fire. Labour MP Steve Rotheram, commented: "How insensitive does somebody have to be to write that load of drivel?" A formal complaint was made against David Crompton, South Yorkshire's chief constable, over internal emails relating to the Hillsborough disaster. In 2013 Crompton sent an email in which he said the families' "version of certain events has become 'the truth' even though it isn't". In September, David Crompton had emailed the force's assistant chief constable