Cameron "sorry" for the "double injustice" suffered by the families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster

The names of the 96 victims on the Hillsborough Memorial at Anfield

Prime Minister David Cameron has apologised to the families of the 96 victims of the 1989 Hillsborough football stadium disaster for the "double injustice" they suffered. Following the release of thousands of documents, he told parliament the Liverpool supporters had suffered not only from official failings that led to the deaths, but also from police attempts to blame the victims. "On behalf of the government -- and indeed our country -- I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long," a sombre Cameron said in a statement to a Commons.

He was speaking after the Hillsborough Independent Panel, a seven-member body led by the Bishop of Liverpool, published a report into Britain's worst sporting disaster following a review of previously unseen files "With the weight of the new evidence in this report, it is right for me today as prime minister to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the past 23 years," Cameron said. "Indeed, the new evidence that we are presented with today makes clear that these families have suffered a double injustice.

"The injustice of the appalling events -- the failure of the state to protect their loved ones and the indefensible wait to get to the truth. "And the injustice of the denigration of the deceased -- that they were somehow at fault for their own deaths." The panel found that police "significantly amended" 164 statements, including the removal of 116 negative comments about the leadership of the police, to push the blame for the tragedy onto the fans, Cameron said.

The Labour leader Ed Miliband also apologised for the failure of the last Labour government to get to the truth over Hillsborough. Responding to the Prime Minister's statement Mr Miliband said "I think today we also remember all who had to suffer the trauma of being there that day. Let me state right up front, Mr Speaker, an uncomfortable truth for us all: It shames us as a country that it has taken 23 years to get to the truth about what happened at Hillsborough. The Prime Minister was right today to offer an unreserved official apology, but all governments during this period bear their share of responsibility for the failure to get to the truth. So we on this side also apologise to the families that we didn’t do enough to help".

Yasmin Qureshi (Lab Bolton West) asked the Prime Minister to ask for an apology from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who in an article 2004 in the Spectator magazine which accused the city of "wallowing" in its "victim status". Liverpudlians made a scapegoat of police in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster, refusing to acknowledge the part played "by drunken fans at the back of the crowd who mindlessly tried to fight their way into the ground". Allegations which the Hillsborough Report have shown to be untrue. The then Conservative leader Michael Howard ordered Mr Johnson to go to Liverpool and apologise, which he did.

MPs from across the House have demanded apologies from the Sun Newspaper and the then Editor Kelvin McKenzie, whos "truth" front page on the Monday after the tragedy in 1989 did not have one word of truth in it as every allegation has been shown to be untrue by the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

The city of Liverpool will hold a two-minute silence from 3:06pm (1406 GMT) -- the time the match was called off -- as a mark of respect to the victims, ahead of a a candle-lit vigil.