South Wales MP in call for public inquiry into 1984 miners’ strike
THE UK Government should launch a public inquiry into the 1984-85 miners’ strike if it wants to hold on to “red wall” seats in the north of England, ministers have been told.
Labour MP for Pontypridd Alex Davies-Jones suggested the UK Government “would be wise to pay attention” to calls for an inquiry if it wants former Labour industrial heartlands to stick with the Conservatives in future.
SNP MP for Midlothian Owen Thompson led calls for an inquiry into the actions taken to police the strike, telling ministers that ex-miners “deserve the chance to feel listened to”.
In 2015, then Home Secretary Theresa May reportedly considered launching an inquiry into the violent clash between miners and South Yorkshire Police on June 18, 1984, known as the Battle of Orgreave.
But in 2016 her successor in the role, Amber Rudd, rejected the inquiry.
Pontypridd MP Ms Davies-Jones told a Westminster Hall debate that the “groundwork” for an inquiry had already been done, adding: “What happened at Orgreave and in the years that followed was a serious failure of policing. Only a public inquiry can right this fundamental wrong.”
She went on: “The 2019 election saw a wave of new members elected to this place, myself included, and many of these were new Conservative members who now represent large ex-mining communities.
“To these colleagues, I would say this – call on your friends in Government for this inquiry.
“Many of their constituents would have been at Orgreave that day, many of their constituents will know first-hand that the popular narrative in the media about Orgreave was utterly false.”
She later added: “If they are serious about retaining these red wall seats, which I hope they are not and they won’t be, they would be wise to pay attention.
“But this is bigger than politics, fundamentally an inquiry is one of the many steps that we urgently need to take to restore public trust in policing.”
SNP MP for Midlothian Owen Thompson said that “people at the heart” of the strike were “still feeling real pain and injustice”, adding: “Criminal records, lost pensions, social stigma, these were the real-world consequences that many are still living with. They have never been fully addressed or listened to, but that can change.
“Ex-miners and their families deserve the chance to feel listened to and for the Government to take action off the back of what they say. That is why I am calling for a public inquiry into the strikes and to get the answers and redress for those affected by the many injustices that those events caused.”
Mr Thompson said the Scottish Parliament had voted to pardon ex-miners in Scotland this year, but added that “miners and their families across the rest of the UK also deserve justice”.
Home Office minister Kit Malthouse stressed that a “large number of legislative and systemic changes” had happened in the decades since the strike.
He said: “Given the landscape has changed so markedly, it is difficult to see how a review of the events and practices of more than three decades ago would yield significant lessons for the policing system today.
“In the light of the significant changes since the strikes, there are no plans to undertake an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an independent inquiry into the policing of the miners’ strikes in 1984-85.
“Neither does the Government plan to review the decision not to establish a public inquiry into the events of the Orgreave coking plant of June 18, 1984.”
Asked if the UK Government would pardon ex-miners who faced charges, Mr Malthouse said ministers were “not currently considering that particular route of action”.