Chester MP Chris Matheson clashed with home secretary Amber Rudd when she told parliament there would be no public inquiry into the so-called Battle of Orgeave during the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike.
Thousands of miners and police were involved in a violent confrontation at the Yorkshire coking site in 1984 when Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was at the helm.
Campaigners claimed officers led by South Yorkshire Police were heavy-handed and manufactured statements.
An angry Mr Matheson, a former trade union official with Unite, was cheered on by fellow Labour members when he told the home secretary: “This is an astonishing and frankly shameful decision by the government. The government have led those families up the garden path for the last two years.
“Does she not understand the disinfecting light of a justice inquiry, a truthful inquiry, is the only thing that will give these communities and these families the confidence they need back in the South Yorkshire Police force?”
Ms Rudd urged the city MP “not to leap to anger quite so quickly” as she explained her decision.
She said: “This government has taken time, has looked at the documents. I have been in post for three months; I have met with the families; I have met with the campaigning MPs. The fact I have reached a different decision to the one that he holds doesn’t mean it’s in any way dishonourable.
“This is a difficult decision to take. I have made it considering all the facts and I believe it’s the right one.”
Calls for an Orgreave inquiry escalated following the conclusion of the two-year Hillsborough inquests, which provided a scathing assessment of the under-fire South Yorkshire Police force’s behaviour.
Among the MPs leading the fight for an inquiry into Orgreave was Mr Matheson’s friend and colleague, Manchester MP Andy Burnham, who described today’s decision as an ‘establishment stitch-up’.
Former Cheshire Chief Constable Peter Fahy has previously called for a public inquiry into Orgreave but wanted such a probe to examine not just the conduct of officers but the political forces at work behind the scenes.
Mr Fahy, who retired as Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police last year, told The Guardian: “It’s time for a public inquiry into the policing of the miners’ strike, not just Orgreave and the role of the police, but also the role of politicians. We need to look at the wider context of the way the police were used and the agenda set for them by government. Clearly it was about, in effect, national control of the police, in pursuit of a political agenda at the time.”
