A Barnsley MP is pushing for a Hillsborough-style inquiry into the miners' strike and wants the Conservatives to apologise for the government's action.
Michael Dugher, for Barnsley East is also the shadow justice minister, and on Wednesday launched the Justice for the Coalfields campaign in parliament, urging Conservative ministers to 'begin to put right the wrongs with coalfield communities'.
He said he was prompted to start the campaign because newly-released government papers reveal the Thatcher government had a secret plan to close 75 pits at the cost of about 65,000 jobs.
He says the papers, which were made public for the first time in 30 years, also show the government sought to influence police tactics to escalate the dispute and considered declaring a state of emergency and deploying the army to defeat the miners and unions.
Labour is now urging ministers to make a formal apology for the actions of the government during the time of the strike and to set out all details of the interactions between the government and the police at the time.
This includes a 'proper investigation' into what happened at the Orgreave coking plant, which saw the most violent clashes between miners and police in the yearlong dispute.
Mr Dugher and his party believe an investigation 'might go a little way to rebuild public confidence' and must happen before the 30th anniversary of Orgreave on June 18.
In the House of Commons on Wednesday, Mr Dugher challenged Conservative cabinet officer minister Francis Maude to make an apology and commit to these actions.
He said: "For those of us who lived through the strike and who saw the events and impact they had firsthand, what was revealed in the cabinet papers may not come as a surprise.
"But it is no less shocking to consider that, far from being neutral as was claimed at the time, it is clear the government took a deliberately calculated, political approach guided by a complete hostility to the coalfield communities.
"That is why I am calling for justice for the coalfields.
"Ministers may want to sweep these events under the carpet, but the scars of the dispute and the subsequent closure programme remain on the memories, communities and landscapes of all coalfield communities.
"They must now apologise and deliver transparency to begin to foster reconciliation with the coalfield communities."
