Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign Update

On  31st October 2025 it will be the 9th anniversary of Tory Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s 2016 rejection of any kind of Orgreave Inquiry. The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign was set up in 2012 to campaign for an inquiry into the police riot at Orgreave on 18 June 1984 during the 1984/5 Miners’ strike. This is an injustice that is now over 41 years old and the government and police have never been held to account for what the Tory government planned and the police did. Our attempts to get the government to hold an inquiry have been turned down by all the Tory Home Secretaries since 2016. We have been ignored and treated disgracefully by 7 Tory Home Secretaries, so we were delighted when we finally had a commitment in 2017 by the Labour Party that a future Labour government would order an inquiry once in power. 

When a Statutory Inquiry was announced by the Home Secretary in July of this year, we were aware of what a historic and momentous announcement this was. The Miners, their families and communities and our campaign had waited a long time for that day and the campaign was cautiously optimistic that this was a step forward for the truth about the Tory government’s direct involvement in the violent policing of the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike and that this would now be finally acknowledged and exposed.

An Inquiry is essential due to:

• The incredibly serious and unprecedented nature of what happened at Orgreave.
• The militarised nature of police tactics on 18th June 1984.
• The deliberate construction of a ‘false narrative’ in police evidence.
• The deliberate promotion of the ‘false narrative’ through the media.
• The lack of legal accountability and failure of the legal system.
• The ongoing consequences of Orgreave and the Miners’ Strike.
• The role of undercover policing and policing legislation.
• New sources of police and government evidence.
• The key issues associated with Orgreave still being relevant today.
• It being in the public interest for there to be an Inquiry.

We have long stated what an Orgreave Inquiry needs to be successful. It needs to have integrity and inspire confidence, trust and respect. It must:

• have the power to require all the relevant information and evidence to be produced to it;
• ensure those who have an interest in the inquiry must be able to fully participate in order to lend their experience, knowledge and understanding to the process;
• be accessible and inclusive to allow people to provide oral contributions to the evidence gathering process;
• be transparent, open and accessible and its conclusions publicly explained in an authoritative way.

We have made it clear over many years and to the Home Office that the Hillsborough Inquiry Panel model was a useful guide to help to establish an Orgreave Inquiry and that the Inquiry planning is equipped with an appreciation of basic elements. We recognise that setting up an inquiry is a major organisational exercise. It is essential that the candidates for the Inquiry panel should involve individuals experienced in the work of upholding legal, constitutional and civil liberties and comprise a commitment (personally and through their work) to the analysis, progression and practical protection of such concepts of fundamental and constitutional rights. Expertise in the complex interaction of the judiciary, media and government is also very important in this Inquiry as is trade unions, industrial relations and medical expertise. The whole experience of the Strike and exemplified in the events of June 18th 1984 was of the destruction of protected rights. The panel individuals need to command confidence and respect for their presumed knowledge of and experience in what is fundamental to this Inquiry’s investigation.  Furthermore those conducting and administering it also need to be able to convey that they have a clear understanding of the less tangible experience and the necessary wisdom to support such an important Inquiry.

Statute requires the Home Secretary to consult with the Inquiry Chair about panel membership but membership is ultimately at the discretion of the Home Secretary. We sincerely hope the Home Office takes notice of our suggestions for selecting panel members with the requisite skills and expertise we have outlined and commits to ensuring they consult with experts in these areas as the Inquiry moves forward.

Our campaign is fully aware of the damning documents and other evidence that is in the public domain already, and of the documents that are currently embargoed. We also know that the many lived experiences of miners, their families and supporters is the evidence and where the truth lies. 

We understand there will be a public announcement about the Inquiry in due course and that the Inquiry will at some stage be asking for anyone wishing to provide written or oral evidence to register their interest to do so. We strongly encourage people to do this. 

We need to make sure that the Inquiry is driven by the people who had the full weight of the state against them and who were directly involved. We need people to come forward to the Inquiry to make sure this is an honest and thorough Inquiry and not another establishment cover up.