UK

Now quash the striking miners' convictions just like the innocent sub-postmasters who were exonerated, Labour MPs demand

Story by Brendan Carlin, Political Correspondent • Daily Mail

More than 8,000 people were charged during the bitterly-fought strike

Men 'wrongly convicted' during the 1980s miners' strike should get the same blanket exoneration now offered to innocent sub-postmasters, Labour MPs demanded last night.

They want the criminal records, including convictions, of thousands of striking miners erased by a single piece of legislation.

The radical approach is now being offered by the Government to give justice to hundreds of people wrongly convicted of theft and other offences in the Post Office 'Horizon' computer system scandal.

On the 40th anniversary of the start of the bitterly-fought 1984/85 miners' dispute, Left-wing Labour MPs Ian Lavery and Jon Trickett said it was 'only right' that the same remedy was given to miners wrongly convicted during the strike.

More than 8,000 people were charged during the bitterly-fought strike, mostly with breach of the peace and obstruction.


The National Miners Strike 1984 Miners and their families from Westoe Colliery march to the Town Hall in South Shields, on March 10, 1984© Provided by Daily Mail

Mr Trickett, MP for Hemsworth in West Yorkshire, said: 'It is entirely right that we pass a blanket law giving the sub-postmasters the justice they so clearly deserve.

'But there is a glaring need to correct another long standing injustice – that of the many innocent striking miners who were left with charges and convictions that they never deserved.

He appealed to the Government to make the anniversary of the strike by 'righting the wrongs that we all know took place and wipe the stain from these people's records.

'And if this Government is not willing to do so, I hope that an incoming Labour government would introduce rapid review of what happened and allow legislation to correct historic wrongs.'

Former miner Mr Lavery, ex-Labour Party chairman, said: 'On the 40th Anniversary of the miners' strike, any respectable Government would consider securing justice for those wrongfully convicted during the dispute.


Former sub-postmaster Alan Bates and his partner Suzanne Sercombe arriving at the High Court to discuss the Horizon scandal © Provided by Daily Mail

'This is long overdue.'

But last night, one senior Tory MP warned against another blanket exoneration move.

He told the Mail on Sunday: 'The sub-postmasters' plan should very much be a one-off.

'We can't start willy-nilly ripping up hundreds of other types of conviction simply by passing a law at Westminster.

'This is terribly dangerous territory.'

However, miners convicted in Scotland have already received a pardon which SNP MP Owen Thompson now wants extending to those in England and Wales.Read more