Louise Haigh MP requests urgent meeting with Home Secretary over Orgreave

From Louise Haigh MP’s website.

Louise Haigh MP, Ian Lavery MP (Chair of the Trade Union Group) and 60 other Labour MPs have joined with the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign to ask for an urgent meeting with the Home Secretary following the decision of the IPCC not to investigate serious criminal allegations made against South Yorkshire Police in the events surrounding Orgreave in June 1984.

The letter calls for a full public inquiry and asks the Home Secretary to meet with the campaign group and a delegation of Labour MPs to discuss the next steps forward for the campaign for justice, following the disappointing decision of the IPCC.

The letter and signatories are reproduced below:

Secretary of State for the Home Office,

We are writing with regard to the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s decision of Friday 12th June not to launch an investigation into the South Yorkshire Police’s handling of events at the Orgreave coking plant in June 1984.

As the IPCC Deputy Chair, Sarah Green, herself notes in the full decision rationale “the events of June 1984 marked not only a critical point in the miners’ strike, but also in the relationship with, and trust in, the police”.

However, Sarah Green states that to conduct a full investigation into whether “individual officers perjured themselves, there was controlling intelligence at a senior level, or a systematic integrity issue within the force which led to evidence being fabricated” would be “extremely challenging for the IPCC” involving “hundreds of witnesses, many of whom were relatively junior at the time” and “the fact that it has taken us two years to gather and read existing documentation – which is by no means complete – indicates the scale of the challenge”.

Given the IPCC have indicated they do not have the capacity to carry out such an important investigation and in light of the seriousness of the allegations against South Yorkshire Police, including perjury, perverting the course of justice, misconduct in a public office, and whether the actions of the police were influenced by the highest levels of government and finally given the scale of public concern, the case for a full public inquiry into the events of Orgreave is clear.

That case must surely have been strengthened by the view of the Deputy Chair of the IPCC herself in the full decision rationale that such questions can only be answered “if there is a full public inquiry or an exercise like the Hillsborough Independent Panel (HIP)” concluding that “nothing in this report precludes such an exercise”.

We are therefore writing to request an urgent meeting with the Home Secretary, a delegation of MPs, representatives from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, and victims to enable the representatives to make the case for a full public inquiry and to ask the government whether ministers will move to establish such an inquiry.

We look forward to hearing from you at the earliest opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

Louise Haigh, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Heeley

Ian Lavery, Member of Parliament for Wansbeck and Chair of the Trade Union Group

Joe Rollin, Chair of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC)

Barbara Jackson, Secretary of the OTJC

Paul Blomfield, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central

Clive Betts, Member of Parliament for Sheffield South East

Michael Dugher, Member of Parliament for Barnsley East

Harry Harpham, Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough

Dan Jarvis, Member of Parliament for Barnsley Central

Sarah Champion, Member of Parliament for Rotherham

Dennis Skinner, Member of Parliament for Bolsover

Dave Crausby, Member of Parliament for Bolton North East

Ian Mearns, Member of Parliament for Gateshead

Grahame Morris, Member of Parliament for Easington

Richard Burgon, Member of Parliament for Leeds East

Dave Anderson, Member of Parliament for Blaydon

Rachael Maskell, Member of Parliament for York Central

Emma Lewell-Buck, Member of Parliament for South Shields

Steve Rotheram, Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton

Kelvin Hopkins, Member of Parliament for Luton North

John McDonnell, Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington

Alex Cunningham, Member of Parliament for Stockton North

Stephen Kinnock, Member of Parliament Aberavon

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Member of Parliament for Torfaen

Ruth Smeeth, Member of Parliament for Stoke on Trent North

Barbara Keeley, Member of Parliament for Worsley and Eccles South

Ronnie Campbell, Member of Parliament for Blyth Valley

Paula Sherriff, Member of Parliament for Dewsbury

Thangam Debbonaire, Member of Parliament for Bristol West

Julie Elliott, Member of Parliament for Sunderland Central

Mary Creagh, Member of Parliament for Wakefield

Andrew Gwynne, Member of Parliament for Denton and Reddish

Wes Streeting, Member of Parliament for Illford North

Madeline Moon, Member of Parliament for Bridgend

Jo Stevens, Member of Parliament for Cardiff Central

Pat Glass, Member of Parliament for North West Durham

Emily Thornberry, Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury

Jonathan Reynolds, Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde

Angela Rayner, Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyme

Justin Madders, Member of Parliament for Ellsmere Port and Neston

John Woodcock, Member of Parliament for Barrow and Furness

Yvonne Fovargue, Member of Parliament for Makerfield

John Mann, Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw

Helen Jones, Member of Parliament for Warrington North

Lilian Greenwood, Member of Parliament Nottingham South

Melanie Onn, Member of Parliament for Great Grimsby

John Cryer, Member of Parliament for Leyton and Wanstead

Cat Smith, Member of Parliament for Lancaster and Fleetwood

Chris Matheson, Member of Parliament for City of Chester

Rosie Cooper, Member of Parliament for West Lancashire

George Howarth, Member of Parliament for Knowsley

Catherine McKinnell, Member of Parliament for Newcastle North

Fiona Mactaggert, Member of Parliament for Slough

Maria Eagle, Member of Parliament for Garston and Halewood

Diane Abbott, Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington

Paul Flynn, Member of Parliament for Newport West

Nia Griffith, Member of Parliament for Llanelli

Vicky Foxcroft, Member of Parliament for Lewisham Deptford

Ruth Cadbury, Member of Parliament for Brentford and Isleworth

Rob Marris, Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton South West

Andrew Smith, Member of Parliament for Oxford East

Barry Sheerman, Member of Parliament for Huddersfield

Valerie Vaz, Member of Parliament for Walsall South

Matthew Pennycook, Member of Parliament for Greenwich and Woolwich