A former police chief accused of blaming Liverpool football fans for the Hillsborough disaster has blamed “political interference” for the charges brought against him as his case collapsed.

Lawyers for Sir Norman Bettison, a former South Yorkshire chief inspector, criticised Maria Eagle MP for using parliamentary privilege to assert that he was part of a unit that “orchestrated a black propaganda campaign” to deflect blame for the tragedy from the police onto football fans.

Paul Greaney QC alleged that the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was put under “considerable political pressure” to construct a case around a narrative that was largely fabricated.

A source told the Telegraph that the minutes of several meetings that took place between the IPCC senior investigator and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Hillsborough Disaster before charges were brought suggested that MPs including Ms Eagle, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester and Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Merseyside, had sought to “direct the course of the investigation”.

“This was parliamentarians saying ‘these are the questions that need to be asked of Norman Bettison when he’s interviewed’ the source said.

“We are not talking about a one-way process.”