Why we must do more for mining communities in places like Barnsley - Stephanie Peacock

However, the Ridley report of 1977 planned the destruction of Britain’s coal mining industry, and its tactics were deployed under Margaret Thatcher in 1984.

They were illustrated in the excellent Channel 4 documentary on the miners’ strike earlier this year, which highlighted the experiences, impact and legacy of the strike 40 years on, and showed in particular new footage of the events at Orgreave on June 18.

Orgreave changed how we are policed as a society, but it also changed many lives that day, as the documentary so powerfully highlights. Trust in the police is still impacted in areas such as mine, even today.

Constituents of mine in Barnsley are still waiting for justice for what happened to them at Orgreave, and they deserve to know the truth.

Many men who went down the pit have suffered from long-term health issues. The previous Labour Government gave £2bn-worth of compensation to coal miners who had contracted lung diseases as a result of their work for British Coal, and around £500m for those who were injured by their use of vibrating tools down the pit.

However, although former miners can seek compensation through the industrial injuries disablement benefits claims process, many often report that the system is difficult to navigate.

Sadly, former miners and their families often tell the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that they have not been assessed correctly and are therefore deemed ineligible for the compensation they deserve.

It is often left to spouses to fight for miners’ compensation after their death, waiting for a post mortem to prove that they did indeed have lungs full of coal dust and that it was the cause of their severe ill health and subsequent early death. We must do better in our approach to this issue, so that the men struggling with poor health are given the support they need. The NUM does an important job to this day in supporting miners in their struggles with industrial disease, and it has worked with my office on a number of cases in recent years.

Another issue that affects thousands of my constituents is the mineworkers’ pension scheme.

The average miner has a pension of just £84 per week, and widows are on a lot less. Through the 50-50 surplus-sharing arrangement, the Government has taken £4.8bn out of the scheme, and that figure is set to rise to £6bn. In response to a parliamentary written question, Ministers have admitted to me that the “take it or leave it” deal when the pits were privatised was done without any actuarial advice.

Time is running out. We can and should do better for our miners, whether that be on miners’ health, on miners’ pensions or for mining areas, as they face the economic legacy of pit closures to this day.

An abridged version of a speech by Stephanie Peacock, Labour MP for Barnsley East, in Parliament.