Shadow home secretary Andy Burnham has urged that those responsible must be held to account for 96 unlawful deaths at Hillsborough and a " 27-year cover-up".

Speaking in the House of Commons, he said "at long last" it was justice for the 96, their families, all Liverpool supporters and an entire city but added it "took too long in coming".

Mr Burnham said there were three reasons how "something so obvious" was finally outlined 27 years later in an inquest jury's conclusions on Tuesday into the deaths.

He said: "First, a police force which has consistently put protecting itself above protecting people harmed by Hillsborough.

"Second, collusion between that force and complicit print media.

"Third, a flawed judicial system that gives the upper hand to those in authority over and above ordinary people."

He said that South Yorkshire Police had gone back on its 2012 public apology following the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report and engaged in an "adversial battle" at the fresh inquests.

He said: "Shamefully, the cover-up continued in this Warrington court room. Millions of pounds of public money were spent re-telling discredited lies.

"Lawyers for retired officers threw disgusting slurs; those for today's force tried to establish that others were responsible for the opening of the gate.

"If the police had chosen to maintain its apology, this Inquest would have been much shorter.

"But they didn't and they put the families through hell once again."

South Yorkshire Police (SYP) said on Wednesday that it had never sought during the inquests to defend its failures.

The force said Coroner Sir John Goldring had ruled that to admit the 2012 apology to the jury would be "highly prejudicial" and had also ruled its conduct at the hearings was not inconsisent with that earlier apology.

In a statement, SYP said: "We have never sought, at any stage, to defend the failures of SYP or its officers.

"Nevertheless, these failures had to be put into the context of other contributory factors. In other words, where do the failings of SYP stand in the overall picture?

"We are sorry if our approach has been perceived as at odds with our earlier apology, this was certainly not our intention."