LABOUR MPs made clear to Con-Dem ministers yesterday that they have no excuse not to loan cash to UK Coal that would save 1,300 jobs in two of Britain’s last three deep-pit mines.

Government officials claimed their hands could be tied by Brussels after UK Coal announced it needs £20 million to keep mines open at Thoresby in Nottinghamshire, which employs 600, and Kellingley in Yorkshire, employing 700.

Their closure would leave employee-owned Hatfield colliery in South Yorkshire as Britain’s last remaining deep-pit mine.

Slippery Energy Secretary Ed Davey repeated that he must check with the European Commission to “make sure interpretations are based on the law.”

But shadow energy minister Tom Greatrex said European Union state aid rules are “much more flexible than his officials’ interpretation seems to be.”

Last month the miners’ pension fund transferred £700m to the government.

Mr Greatrex added that the figure needed is just a fraction of that cash, which workers are ready to use to save their jobs.

The workers’ own willingness to help was pressed home later by miners’ MP Ian Lavery during urgent questions.

And veteran Labour MP Dennis Skinner later told the Morning Star that the Treasury would effectively be stealing miners’ pension funds by refusing to use them to save the pits.

Mr Skinner told Parliament that the unnecessary closure of the pits would mark the “end of an era.”

Raising to huge cheers from backbench Labour MPs, he said: “There will be one pit left if this decision goes through and it’s all about some money.”

He said the coal industry must be helped to exploit the 100 million tonnes of coal in Britain by being given the same tax breaks gifted to oil multinationals.

The TUC has pointed out the government would be forced to provide a £10m loan just to close the pits.

“The government says that any plans to delay the pit closures must ‘show good value for money’ but it will cost more to shut both mines than it will do to keep them open,” general secretary Frances O’Grady added.

“Just £60m would secure the future of several thousand jobs, the communities surrounding the mines and the British coal industry.”

Jobs are also likely to go at UK Coal’s head office in Doncaster.