Conservative event at mining museum is off

AN ANNUAL dinner by a Tory party branch at the National Coal Mining Museum, inset, has been cancelled after protests were threatened.

Dewsbury County Conservative Association was planning to celebrate at the Overton museum on March 10, two days after the anniversary of the end of the 19845 miners’ strike.

Pit workers went on strike for a year in the 1980s in a dispute over pit closures with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. Museum bosses first said they could not revoke the booking, but Asparagus Green, the museum catering contractor, pulled the plug yesterday over safety.

Asparagus Green said in a statement: “In light of complaints and comments that have been made by telephone, email and social media platforms, the company’s priority must be to safeguard staff, visitors and the museum property, and to avoid potential public order issues.” Chris Kitchen, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), had complained in a letter to the museum. He said: “It is a matter of common knowledge that the Conservative Party conspired to close and destroy the coal industry in the UK. “I think it is wrong to allow the museum to be used by a political party that is clearly determined to keep rubbing salt in the wounds it created wherever it can.” The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign said it would picket the event if it went ahead.