New hope in Orgreave inquiry bid

Members of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign met shadow home secretary Andy Burnham in Parliament on Monday.

The group — who made their legal submission setting out the case for an Orgreave inquiry to previous Home Secretary last December — are due to meet Ms Rudd in London on Tuesday.

Campaigners want to see the police tactics used on June 18, 1984, when pickets clashed with police at Orgreave, formally examined.

A question was also asked on the groups’ behalf in the Commons on Monday about the death of Swansea fan Terry Coles, who died after being trampled by a police horse outside Millmoor in 2000.

Swansea MP Carolyn Harris asked Ms Rudd to look into the evidence surrounding the incident.

Ms Rudd said: “The Honourable Lady is right, I am meeting members of Orgreave Truth and Justice, and I look forward to having the opportunity to hear from them. 

“The Government have not shirked in looking at historical cases, and if the Honourable Lady wants to bring any more to my attention, I shall certainly look at those.”

Challenged by several MPs including Rotherham’s Sarah Champion in July, Ms Rudd said she would “not shy away from looking carefully at wherever there has been wrongdoing or wherever there are links”, referring to possible connections between South Yorkshire Police’s tactics at Orgreave in 1984 and at the Hillsborough disaster five years later.