A PETITION has been submitted to Parliament calling for a public inquiry into the actions of police during one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history.

The Battle of Orgreave, on June 18, 1984, saw 123 men injured and 95 men arrested after riots broke out between pickets and police during the miners’ strike, at Orgreave coking plant in South Yorkshire.

The event has come to symbolise the bitter struggle between the striking pit men and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government over the closure of coal mines across the country.

The petition was delivered by County Durham MP Grahame Morris as part of the Orgreave Trust and Justice Campaign.

Mr Morris said: “The miners’ strike is not a long-forgotten piece of history, as the Government would like us to believe.

“The actions of state collusion and police brutality caused lasting damage to our family, friends and communities like East Durham.

“Striking miners were blacklisted, criminalised, wrongly convicted, attacked, and denied basic civil liberties by the state, in a focused effort to smash Trade Unionism in the UK.

“The historic injustice of the miners’ strike did not end in 1984, but lives with those at Orgreave to this day.”

Four years ago, campaigners were hopeful that the then Home Secretary Amber Rudd MP would announce a public inquiry.

In a statement to the House of Commons, and to the shock of campaigners, on October 31, 2016, the Home Secretary refused a public inquiry into the historic injustice.

Mr Morris said: “The miners’ strike was over 30 years ago, but whether it takes another thirty years, or century or more, we will have the truth and end the cover-up.

“The Government, courts, security services and police are our institutions, they belong to the people of the UK; and when they are hijacked and turned against us to pursue a political agenda, exposing this corruption and collusion is in everyone’s interest.

“Thirty years ago, the tools of the state were turned against miners fighting for their jobs and communities.

“We know through the ‘Spycops’ Scandal that the state ignored civil liberties to infiltrate climate change groups.

“If we do not get the truth about these historic injustices, then it could be you, and your family, who are the next victims of state intrusion and violation of your civil liberties.”

The Home Office said it has reviewed all 33 files it held relating to the Miner’s Strike of 1984/85 and committed to transfer all to The National Archives, subject of course to any redactions which may be required for personal data sensitivity reasons.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The Government’s decision that there will be no inquiry into the events at Orgreave was made after careful consideration of the key purposes of an inquiry and, critically, took into account how the policing landscape has changed fundamentally since 1984 at all levels.

“There would be very few lessons for the policing system today to be learned from any review of the events and practices of three decades ago.”