Kelvin MacKenzie demands apology from police over Hillsborough In extracts published on the Spectator's website Mr MacKenzie wrote: "Now I know - you know, we all know - that the fans were right. But it took 23 years, two inquiries, one inquest and research into 400,000 documents, many of which were kept secret under the 30-year no-publication rule, to discover there was a vast cover-up by South Yorkshire Police about the disaster. Where does that leave me? Mr MacKenzie also suggests that the backlash against The Sun newspaper, was politically motivated rather than based on genuine anger over the story. He wrote: "Liverpool fans didn't turn on other media, only the Sun. That has always puzzled me. Was it picked out because the paper had always backed Thatcher, while the city had always been pro-Labour? On September 12 a damning report by the Hillsborough Independent Panel said a cover-up took place to shift the blame on to the victims and 41 of the 96 lives lost could have been saved. The panel found 164 police statements were altered, 116 of them to remove or change "unfavourable" comments about the policing of the match and the unfolding disaster. The following day both Mr MacKenzie and current Sun editor Dominic Mohan apologised for the newspaper's role.