DENNIS SKINNER branded David Cameron “bad Santa” yesterday in a scathing attack on the Tories’ refusal to give Kellingley miners a penny more than the legal minimum in redundancy pay.

The Prime Minister paid lip service in Parliament to the 450 miners who will lose their jobs when Britain’s last deep coalmine closes on Friday after powering homes and businesses for 50 years.

Mr Cameron thanked the miners who “worked so hard” and said: “Obviously it is a difficult time.

“As part of the closure process, the government has put in nearly £18 million to ensure that the workers receive the same package as the miners at recently closed Thoresby.”

But the miners will only receive the statutory redundancy payment from UK Coal, which scrapped its former, less stingy scheme in 2013.

Former employees will now get a measly £464 for every year they have spent underground.

The maximum payout for the longest-serving miners, who often face chronic health problems related to years of service, will be just £13,000, according to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).

NUM Kellingley delegate Keith Hartshorne said that compares poorly with miners made redundant in the 1980s and 1990s, who received an extra £900 for every year’s service.

He told the Star: “Before privatisation, it were quite common for people to be picking up between £30,000 and £40,000. That would buy you a house at the time.

“With what we’re getting, you’d be lucky to afford a garage. We’re being penalised for being loyal to the industry and to the success of the company.”

Mr Skinner, a miners’ MP since 1970, tried to raise the swindle at Prime Minister’s Questions but was not called by the Speaker.

Speaking to the Morning Star, he said: “I was going to say to Cameron: It ill becomes a Tory PM who has been lining the pockets of the billionaires with tax cuts and gerrymandering the seats in Parliament now having the audacity to refuse to pay up redundancies on behalf of the last pit in Britain.

“With his qualifications he could be the bad Santa at Sports Direct working for Mike Ashley.

“He’s just carrying out Thatcher’s wishes. The Tories have shut 160 of the 170 pits that have closed since 1984. The Tories enjoy shutting coalmines.”