In April 2009 after being heckled at the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster Burnham used the next day's cabinet meeting in Downing Street to ask then prime minister Gordon Brown if he could raise the issue of Hillsborough in Parliament. Brown agreed despite it not being on the agenda or on the government's radar. The eventual result was the second Hillsborough inquiry. In 2014 when Burnham spoke at the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster he was cheered and applauded by the crowd.