Battle of Orgreave: Inquiry into violent clashes between miners and police getting closer, say campaigners

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) said it told Home Secretary Yvette Cooper that an inquiry should be held as a matter of urgency into events outside a coking plant in Yorkshire on June 18 1984.

The delegation included miners arrested during violent clashes with police, which led to allegations of police brutality and government involvement.

The campaigners want the government to press ahead with its pre-election commitment to an inquiry.

Kevin Horne, one of the miners arrested at Orgreave, said: “It is now over 40 years since striking miners, fighting to save our jobs and communities, were attacked and arrested by police for picketing the Orgreave coking plant during the 84-5 miners’ strike.

“As the years role by, and many miners have died, those of us left, and our families, need answers about what the government planned and what the police did.”

Kate Flannery, secretary of the OTJC, said: “Our latest report, submitted to the Home Secretary and all major political parties and MPs, describes the Conservative government’s political interference and involvement in the 1984-5 miners’ strike and how they used the courts, violent policing and the media to give the police the confidence to behave with impunity throughout the miners’ strike and years later at Hillsborough.”

The campaign group said an inquiry into what was dubbed “the Battle of Orgreave” had moved closer following the meeting.