CAMPAIGNERS for the truth about the Battle of Orgreave are undeterred by Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s refusal to hold a public inquiry.

Speaking at a press conference in the historic Barnsley headquarters of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) yesterday, Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaigners (OTJC) announced that they will be seeking a judicial review into Ms Rudd’s shocking decision not to hold an inquiry into the unprovoked police attack on miners in 1984.

Leaders and supporters of OTJC gathered in the council chamber of the miners’ hall, where the banners of collieries looked down from the walls.

NUM national secretary Chris Kitchen said: “If Amber Rudd thinks that what she did was a brilliant bit of dilly-dallying, she should think again, because it is going to come back and bite her.”

Mr Kitchen stressed that the Home Secretary “has no authority to determine that she is judge and jury over what happened 32 years ago, something that she was not involved in,” and accused her of defending the people who colluded with police in creating false statements to convict miners.

OTJC secretary Barbara Jackson won a standing ovation following an emotion-packed address in which she declared that the campaign “has no intention of collapsing or folding. The gloves are now off on our side.”

The Battle of Orgreave left hundreds of striking miners at the Yorkshire colliery battered and bloody, and 95 in the cells to face unfounded charges of riot.

Their charges were later thrown out of court after revelations of concocted statements by police, senior officers instructing lower ranks what to write and perjury by police under oath in court.

Not a single officer was disciplined or charged with any offence.

Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller has donated a signed set of 19 stills from a re-enactment of the Battle of Orgreave he filmed in 2001 to the Left Book Club’s crowd funding campaign.

Mr Deller said he was “delighted” to offer the club the artworks “to raise funds for this important enterprise and to keep Orgreave fresh in our minds.”

Left Book Club chairman Hank Roberts said: “With the government continuing to put obstacles in the way of truth and justice, the need for the new Left Book Club as a space for debate and dissent is greater than ever.”

You can donate to the appeal at crowdfunder.co.uk/leftbookclub