by Solomon Hughes
and Conrad Landin

NEIL KINNOCK has insisted he did not bolster police during the 1984-85 miners’ strike, after released government documents suggested he “spoke warmly in support” while meeting a senior officer.

The Labour peer, who faced criticism during his nine-year stint as party leader for not sufficiently supporting the workers during their dispute, said last autumn that he had felt “absolutely helpless” at the time.

But formerly confidential Home Office documents seen by the Morning Star say that Mr Kinnock “asked to see” former South Wales Chief Constable John Woodcock and conducted a “relaxed conversation” to discuss “police matters” in the National Union of Mineworkers’ dispute.

An official note of the meeting, written up at the height of the dispute in October 1984, says that the Labour leader asked Mr Woodcock questions on “difficulties with South Yorkshire over horses and dogs,” but “seemed contented with all the explanations.”

But Mr Kinnock told the Star: “The note does not convey the fact that my reaction to ‘explanations’ then and at other times was to emphasise the gravity of the feelings which were obviously being aroused in the communities by such methods.

“I certainly do not recall being ‘contented’ by the ‘explanations’ or with the continuing situation.”

Other Labour MPs and the National Council for Civil Liberties had lodged official complaints over police brutality at the time.

But Mr Kinnock said it would be “unjustified and misleading” to see his conversation as an attempt to bolster the Home Office stand on police behaviour.

In a documentary aired last year, Mr Kinnock was asked if he felt he had not done enough to support the miners’ struggle during the 1984-85 walk-out.

“I did everything I could,” he replied. “But I was certain that without a ballot, the strike — however long it lasted — could not result in the saving of the coal industry and everything that went with it.”

Mr Kinnock said he wanted to “absolutely guarantee” that miners’ leader Arthur Scargill “carried the blame that wasn’t ­carried by Margaret Thatcher.”

He said this would ensure that “Scargill couldn’t turn round and say: ‘If only the Labour leader hadn’t done this or had done that… we would have won’.”