‘I HAVE concluded that there is no case for either a statutory inquiry or an independent review,’ into the battle of Orgreave, home secretary Amber Rudd declared in Parliament.
Labour MP for Leigh, Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham said: ‘Given that the IPCC (independent Police Complaints Commission) found evidence of perjury and perversion of the course of justice and given that in the last month new evidence has emerged from former police officers who were at Orgreave of orchestrated violence and the mass manufacture of police statements, aren’t we right in concluding that the establishment stitch up that she has just announced, is nothing more than a nakedly political act.’
Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said: ‘I don’t think that the home secretary fully understands how disappointed and let down the Orgreave family and campaigners will be by her decision. A six-page letter doesn’t compensate for the violence and injustice that occurred at Orgreave so many years ago.
‘We know that the south Yorkshire police lied about what happened at Hillsborough, yet only five years earlier the same south Yorkshire police, many of the same Commanders, behaved in a very similar way at Orgreave. The Orgreave families and campaigners need the same justice as Hillsborough had. They need the same type of independent inquiry to establish the truth.’
To the horror of parliament Rudd answered: ‘The Hillsborough situation was quite different to Orgreave,’ she said to jeers and shouts of indignation. Ninety-six people died. It was right that we had an inquiry that analysed exactly what happened on the day.
‘In this situation, in Orgreave, there were no miscarriages of justice,’ she said to more shouts. There were no convictions, therefore it doesn’t merit the same level of status as a public inquiry for Hillsborough.’
On June 18, 1984, during the year long 1984-85 miner strike, over 6,000 police officers on horses attacked picketing miners at the coking plant in Orgreave, South Yorkshire. During the battle 93 arrests were made, with 51 pickets were seriously injured.
71 pickets were charged with ‘riot’ and 24 with violent disorder. At the time, ‘riot’ was punishable by life imprisonment. The trials collapsed when the evidence given by the police was deemed ‘unreliable’. The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign commented: ‘We have campaigned tirelessly to place on the political agenda the urgent need for a public inquiry into key questions into the role of the police on that day.
‘Who ordered the brutal deployment of mounted police, armed with truncheons, and other police units, some with dogs, against the striking miners? ‘Who decided to charge arrested miners with “riot” which carried heavy prison sentences? And why has the Police Operational Order for that day, for the police deployment, disappeared?’
She added: ‘However, the new home secretary, Amber Rudd, has now just announced that there will be no inquiry. We say the decision is deeply disappointing and absolutely unacceptable.’
