Labour to offer its backing for safe standing at English football stadiums

The Labour party has decided to give its official backing to the introduction of safe standing at Premier League and Championship stadiums.

The party believes decisions around safe standing should be devolved to clubs, supporters and safety authorities, a stance that the shadow sports minister, Rosena Allin-Khan, will announce officially on Friday and which will act as a further boost to campaigners and backers of safe standing.

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They received an initial boost this week when it was revealed that the government is to commission a review of the policy that demands all-seat stadiums in England’s top two divisions.

The sports minister, Tracey Crouch, had previously been unmoved by calls to overturn the ban on standing, which was introduced following the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and has been in place for more than 20 years. But following a swell of support for a change, alongside improvements in stadium design, it is understood Crouch has had a change of heart and will address a Westminster debate on the issue this month.

“We want to give the power to fans, clubs and local safety authorities, to allow for a small area inside a stadium to be designated for safe standing,” Allin-Khan will say at the official announcement, which is to take place at Loftus Road, the home of Queens Park Rangers. “Clubs, fans and local authorities know their stadium far better than anybody in Whitehall – the decision should rest with them.”

A survey conducted by the Football League last month indicated 94% of fans want safe standing to be introduced, and that followed a petition, signed by more than 100,000 people, calling for the Premier League and Championship clubs to allow safe standing, which means the issue will be discussed by Parliament.

The issue remains a sensitive one given many families of those who died at Hillsborough remain opposed to stadiums being anything but all-seat. Campaigners for safe standing point out that standing itself was not a cause of the 1989 disaster as well as referring to the success of “rail seating” across Germany and at Celtic Park, by which rows of rails with flip-down seats are closely spaced to guard against overcrowding and crushing.