Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has called on the police to launch a fresh probe into the Bradford City stadium fire after allegations emerged suggesting that the devastating blaze was deliberately caused.

The 1985 fire killed 56 people and the judge who led the inquiry, Sir Oliver Popplewell, ruled that it was an accident.

However, a new book by Martin Fletcher, who lost his father, brother, uncle and grandfather in the blaze, has claimed that the fire was one of nine that occurred at businesses owned or linked to then chairman Stafford Heginbotham.

While Sir Popplewell has rubbished the accusations, Burnham, who is one of the campaigners for justice for the 96 Hillsborough victims, believes that the allegations should be looked into.

"These are allegations of the most serious kind, and if a bereaved family member feels that they need to be investigated then they should be," Burnham told The Guardian.

"I have always felt that the original Popplewell inquiry was conducted with undue haste, and there is a concern that these matters were not thoroughly looked into at the time."

Heginbotham passed away in 1995.