Parliament has moved a step closer to calling a public inquiry into the 1984-1985 miners’ strike after 28 MPs backed the campaign this month.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the strike, which was the largest ever industrial dispute in the UK. In the dispute, miners in Rotherham fought the attempts of Margaret Thatcher’s government to break up the miners’ union and the labour movement, close down the coal mines, and make the way to a free market economy. Thousands of miners were sacked, arrested, fined, or imprisoned, and some of them never worked again.
Labour MP for Gateshead Ian Mearns has criticised Thatcher’s action during the strike as “a politically motivated attempt to provoke the strike and smash a union”.
Mr Mearns is the sponsor of the Early Day Motion, which has been submitted for debate in the House of Commons but has not yet been scheduled for discussion.
He helped run and coordinate a miners support group in Felling, Gateshead, where they provided food parcels each week to striking miners’ families.
Mr Mearns said: “My dad was a miner and many of my friends in Parliament were miners.
“They deserve our support throughout. We do well not to forget that piece of political history.”
The move by the MPs has thrilled campaigners from the advocacy group Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, who first campaigned the Home Office in December 2015.
Kevin Horne, an ex-miner arrested who was arrested during the strike at Orgreave, said it is “nice to have the support” from the MPs who signed the campaign call.
Mr Horne said: “We want an inquiry into the whole event of the minor strike. That’s what we’re aiming for.
“Mass police occupied villages in South Yorkshire. We couldn’t travel anywhere, couldn’t even get out of the street some days for being stopped by police.
Though an inquiry was not called, the Orgreave campaigners hope the MPs backing is all part of steady process.
