Mick: Anderson pension pledge ‘blatant political opportunism’
CAMPAIGNER ‘NEVER BEEN CONVINCED THAT HE WOULD GO EXTRA MILE FOR MINERS’
A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE mining campaigner has accused Lee Anderson of “blatant political opportunism” after the Ashfield MP pledged to give billions back to former pit workers.
The Government has received more than £4 billion in cash payments from the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme under an arrangement which a committee of MPS called “unconscionable”.
That committee recommended that the 50:50 splitting of surplus money in the pension pot between miners and the Government should stop and that the money should be returned.
The recommendations have never been implemented and Mr Anderson, now part of the Reform UK party after the Tories suspended him earlier this year, has pledged the party will implement the recommendations in full if it forms the next Government.
Mr Anderson said: “As far as you can go back in Ashfield, all the male members of my family went down the pits... It was an incredibly difficult and dangerous job.
“They kept the lights on, they kept the coal burning during two world wars to help us defeat fascism across Europe. Great men and great families, but they’ve been let down.
“When I was wondering whether or not to join Reform and having discussions with our leader Richard, one of the things I went to see him about was the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme and I gave him the [committee] report. He forensically went through it and after about two days he came back to me and said ‘Lee, this is an absolute scandal. These are working class people in areas like Ashfield that have been let down by successive governments, so we must right this wrong.’”
Mick Newton, who worked at Thoresby Colliery and later became a Labour councillor, has campaigned for years for reforms to the pension pot for miners. He recently said that he and potentially thousands of others would march on Westminster in May after it was revealed that the Government has taken more than £420 million from the pension fund in the last three years alone.
But reacting to Mr Anderson’s announcement, Mr Newton said: “This is nothing more than a blatant act of political opportunism in my view.
“I have been representing the views of mineworkers and widows for over the past 20 years regarding this historic injustice and I have had dialogue with Lee Anderson in the past.
“I have never been convinced that he would go the extra mile for mineworkers and I was quite upset that he didn’t shout up more in Parliament when the Government failed to implement the select committee recommendations three years ago.
“Other opposition parties including the Labour Party, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru have been very consistent over the last several years in supporting the mineworkers pension injustice inside and outside Parliament, and the Labour Party included our cause within the Labour manifesto at the 2019 election and I also hope this time around.
“I’m afraid I cannot give my support to the Reform Party regarding their latest statement – my confidence will not extend that far. Alongside other campaigners, we have tried and tested the resolve of politicians towards implementing improvements to the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme on a regular basis.”
Mr Anderson said that he had raised the issue repeatedly in Parliament and had also met Rishi Sunak about it while he was still Chancellor.
The Ashfield MP added: “I’m one of the youngest ex-miners left and I’m 57. When the last miner dies in this country, the billions of pounds in the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme goes straight to the Treasury and then they can have the lot. This is money that they’ve stole off the backs off hard-working miners, working class people up and down this country.”
I was quite upset that he didn’t shout up more in Parliament
Campaigner Mick Newton