Rotherham MPs demand Orgreave inquiry

Sir Kevin Barron and Labour colleagues Sarah Champion and John Healey wrote to Home Secretary Theresa May on Friday to formally call for a public inquiry into the policing at Orgreave.

“Following the verdicts in the Hillsborough inquiry it is clear that justice can take decades to achieve, and we believe now is the time to pursue that for those who were involved in clashes with police at Orgreave,” the MPs said.

“We believe that the incidents that took place at Orgreave and other pits must now be looked at by an independent body.”

The MPs said policing during the 1984-5 strike and the charges that followed the Battle of Orgreave, which were later dropped, “led to serious divisions between communities and the police that still exist today”.

They concluded: “We must get to the truth of what happened so we can finally start rebuilding relationships. “

Sir Kevin first called in May 1985 in the House of Commons for an inquiry into events at Orgreave the previous year.