LABOUR was urged to fulfil its election pledge to “uncover the truth” about the infamous 1984 police attack on striking miners at Orgreave at the David Jones-Joe Green Memorial Lecture on Saturday.

Jones, 24 and Green, 55, were Yorkshire miners killed on picket lines during the 1984-5 miners’ strike against pit closures.

Guest speaker Grahame Morris, MP for Easington in the North East, said that in 1984 the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and striking miners were victims of a “criminal conspiracy deployed ruthlessly against working people in coalfield communities” by the Thatcher government, courts, police, and national media.

Mr Morris, who is the son, grandson and great-grandson of miners, said: “The government went to war with miners during the strike, with assault, perjury and misconduct in public office being rife.”

On June 18, 1984, the most notorious single incident of the strike took place when massed ranks of riot police and cavalry attacked pickets at a coke works at Orgreave in South Yorkshire.

Mr Morris said: “Four decades later, it's imperative that this Labour government honours its manifesto commitment to uncovering the truth about Orgreave — and in truth we need a full review of the policing of the entire miners’ strike.”

He said the defeat of the miners “did not just devastate coalfield communities and the trade union movement, but left subsequent generations of workers trapped in low pay, insecure jobs, exploited by failing public services, declining high streets, absentee landlords and sky-high rents.

But he said the spirit of the miners’ strike lived on in battles being fought today.

“We have the GMB taking on union-busting employer Amazon and they have also won a major victory in their equal pay campaign with Asda,” he said.

“The RMT, under the exceptional leadership of Mick Lynch, eviscerated the Tories and right-wing press, who were seeking to demonise industrial action and workers.  

“We have Unite winning inflation-beating pay rises across numerous sectors, including an eight per cent increase for Cornish clay miners.”

Other speakers at the NUM’s Barnsley headquarters were Derbyshire ex-miner John Dunn, who was injured at Orgreave, and Barnsley South MP Stephanie Peacock.