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Tony Blair failed to order a full inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster to avoid offending Rupert Murdoch, Andy Burnham has suggested.

The Labour leadership hopeful said he was told not to pursue his demand for an official probe into the 1989 stadium tragedy when serving under PM Blair.

As a result a “major injustice” was allowed to remain in place for more than a decade, he told journalists yesterday.

Mr Burnham was the driving force behind Gordon Brown’s decision to set up the Hillsborough Independent Panel into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.

The panel subsequently found “multiple failures” by the police and other services had contributed to the death toll, prompting David Cameron to make an official apology in 2012.

(Image: PA)

Mr Burnham hinted an official inquiry could have been set up earlier but Blair’s government did not want to upset Murdoch’s News International, publisher of the Sun newspaper.

The Sun caused lasting outrage by accusing “drunken” Liverpool fans of attacking rescue workers.

Mr Burnham made his remarks when asked by a Sun journalist if he would give them an interview.

Another reporter then asked: “Are you saying one of the reasons there wasn’t a Hillsborough inquiry sooner was because of the relations between the Labour Party and The Sun newspaper?”

Mr Burnham then replied that there had been a “decision to leave it alone”. But he did not name Mr Blair as responsible.

Mr Burnham, an Evertonian, added: “It got to the point where a whole city was crying injustice throughout our time in government and we weren’t listening.

“I don’t know all the background to the decision-making, but in 1998, after the Stuart Smith inquiry, a decision was taken to draw a line under it.”

Mr Burnham said he was told he should not “carry on looking into” what happened at Sheffield Wednesday’s stadium, adding: “It was the wrong decision and allowed a major injustice to remain in place.”

Last night Mr Blair refused to comment.

Murdoch’s Sun newspaper backed Labour at the 1997 general election. After leaving office in 2007 Mr Blair became godfather to one of Murdoch’s children.