Jeremy Corbyn Attends Hillsborough Inquest

Jeremy Corbyn has attended the Hillsborough inquest, where Coroner Sir John Goldring is continuing to sum up the evidence.

The Labour leader arrived at the coroner's court in Warrington with Liverpool MP Steve Rotheram and shadow home secretary Andy Burnham.

During a break in the hearings he spoke to families of some of the fans who died in the crush at the stadium in 1989.

Mr Corbyn said his visit to the hearing had nothing to do with party politics.

As he left, he said: "I've come to observe, I've come to meet the families and I think that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

"It's an act of interest, an act of support for the families and recognition of the trauma they've been through, for the dreadful events that happened at Hillsborough."

Mr Corbyn also paid tribute to local MPs and campaigners for helping the families to fight for new inquests, quashing the verdicts of accidental death in the original inquests held in 1991.

Mr Burnham raised the families' campaign for new inquests at Cabinet level with then-prime minister Gordon Brown, leading to the setting up of the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

The inquests have been sitting for almost two years. The jury has been hearing evidence into the deaths of the 96 fans crushed to death on the Leppings Lane terrace of the ground in Sheffield as the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest got under way on 15 April 1989.

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdicts on 2 March.