Determined, demanding accountability and not afraid of saying it how it is, few people encapsulate the idea of “give to gain” more than Margaret Aspinall.
Ms Aspinall’s son James, aged 18, was among the 97 Liverpool fans unlawfully killed by the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. She has devoted the 37 years since to campaigning tirelessly – not only for the truth, but for a change in the law, so that nobody has to endure what she has.
The campaign for justice has been met with hurdle after hurdle as it has tried to undo a cover-up, which continues to hurt an entire city.
Those from Merseyside who attended the 1989 FA Cup semi-final were smeared by police and parts of the media as being drunk and ticketless, blamed for the disaster that unfolded. Initial inquests in 1991 reached a verdict of accidental death but were quashed in 2012, following the findings of an independent panel and campaigning from the families.
New inquests found in 2016 that those who died following the match in Sheffield were unlawfully killed, exonerating the Liverpool fans, while pointing out that “errors and omissions” from the police contributed to the causes. South Yorkshire Police’s match commander, David Duckenfield, was accused of manslaughter by gross negligence, but found not guilty after a 2019 retrial. Still, no police officer has been held accountable.
For the fourth year running, The Independent is publishing its influence list on International Women’s Day and its theme of “give to gain” recognises the sacrifices made by these women, as well as the impact they have on the world around them.
Ms Aspinall is among that list after a year that saw the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, known as the Hillsborough Law, brought to parliament in a landmark moment in September 2025. That same month, she introduced the prime minister at the Labour Party conference in her home city, giving a speech in which she called for the law to be implemented in full.
A key pledge of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government, through a “duty of candour”, the law will force public officials and contractors to tell the truth in the aftermath of disasters, and is designed to prevent future cover-ups.
The bill’s progress through parliament has since been met with delays, most recently due to security services’ concerns over national security, much to Ms Aspinall and her fellow campaigners’ frustration. But she will not stop and is not afraid to tell the prime minister what is expected of him.
“I think we’ve got about 90 per cent of it [done], maybe 95 per cent,” she told The Independent. “But, as I told Keir Starmer straight to his face, I don’t want half measures. I want it in all of its entirety.
“Everybody should be held to account, no matter who they are, what they are. They are no different from anybody else. So we are determined that we're making a law, so that can never, ever happen again in the future of this nation.”
Ms Aspinall’s speech at Labour’s conference warned the party against complacency. The fight for the Hillsborough Law had not yet been won.
As such, she said it was a “tough decision” to introduce Sir Keir in Liverpool, but was reassured by his promises to her that Labour would deliver the law. She had been asked to prepare a script for approval, but in all her years of public speaking, that is not something Ms Aspinall has ever done.
“I just feel if you do a script, you’re being false,” she said. “I’m hoping I was true to myself and true to the 97, and true to the supporters who were there that day who went through so much, and that’s all I was caring and thinking about at the time.”
The theme of “give to gain” chimes with Ms Aspinall, who underlines the importance of selflessness to a campaign like hers. The Hillsborough families’ work is intensely personal, but it won’t be them who gain from it. “The law of averages, something like that could happen again, we only had to look at Grenfell, and you only have to look at the Manchester arena bombing,” Ms Aspinall explained.
The Hillsborough Law Now campaign group is made up of many mothers, sisters and daughters who lost loved ones in 1989, and Ms Aspinall is proud to stand among strong women. Taking praise for her efforts does not come naturally, however.
About featuring on The Independent’s Influence List, she said: “I’m not really one. There are so many women out there behind the scenes that we all should be praising.
”Not only the Hillsborough families, but you look at some of the Grenfell families who are fighting and campaigning, Bloody Sunday, the way they’ve campaigned for all of these years, the Post Office scandal.
“It makes me so proud to see all these women, these strong, strong women. But what I’m proud of more than anything is, if the 97 have died for anything, they’ve died changing things.”
Ms Aspinall, who was the long-serving chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, had to sacrifice time with her children as she helped spearhead the fight.
“I couldn’t have done it without my husband helping me with the family, the children, and the home,” she said.
“What kept me going, obviously, was the love of my child, but also, when you looked at the families, the love that they had for their children and their husbands, their fathers, or no matter who they were.
“They all suffered… but it always takes a woman to try and change things for the good.”
The 79-year-old added: “I said to Keir Starmer, I want this done before I die. My voice is not my voice; it’s my son’s voice. It's what he’d want, it’s what the other 96 would want. I’m proud of that.”
Read The Independent’s influence list for International Women’s Day 2026 here.
Independent Women 2026 – The Influence List
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