Labour has been called on to renationalise the coal mining industry if it takes power at next year’s general election.

Sherwood Constituency Labour Party (CLP) launched a campaign last week demanding the renationalisation and the reopening of Britain’s coal mining sector.

The call comes as the once-mighty industry which powered Britain’s businesses and warmed its homes has been reduced to three deep coal mines, two of which — Kellingley in Yorkshire and Thoresby in Nottinghamshire — are under threat of closure.

Clean coal technology is vastly reducing the environmental damage caused by burning coal to make electricity.

Sherwood CLP says 35 new pits could produce 50 million tonnes of coal a year — the amount currently imported from Russia, Poland, Columbia and Australia.

The CLP said privatisation had been “a disaster for the industry, the workforce, skills, employment and the local economy.

“Towns and villages in Nottinghamshire and other counties have been hit hard, in some cases even destroyed, by the Tory mantra that perceives private as best.

“Sherwood CLP recognises such a bold investment plan into a new industry would create many thousands of jobs, as well as thousands more in the supply chains in other industries, creating lower unemployment amongst younger people and kick-starting the national economy.”

Britain faces the prospect of 10 new nuclear power stations costing the taxpayer more than £400 billion in subsidies. The government has yet to solve the problem of disposing of used nuclear fuel.

But Britain sits on at least 200 years of accessible coal reserves.