Orgreave campaigners in long-awaited meeting with Home Secretary
Campaingers will urge the home secretary to organise an inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave later
Campaigners will make the case for an inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave later - in a long-awaited meeting with the home secretary.
Thousands of miners clashed with police in one of the most violent confrontations of the miners’ strike back in 1984.
For years there have been calls for a public inquiry into what happened that day but this afternoon campaigners could take a step closer as they discuss it with Amber Rudd at Parliament.
Barbara Jackson - from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign - says the truth must be exposed:
"No police officer or police force has ever been held to account - it's just been swept under the carpet. We, as a campaign, have retrieved it from under that carpet, saying this is wrong now, it was wrong then and it needs sorting out."
"This happened 32 years ago and it's unfinished business in our area - it's a running sore. There's a lack of trust in South Yorkshire Police now from the miners that were at Orgreave. That mistrust has been passed on to their children and grandchildren."
Campaigners met with the then Home Secretary Teresa May back in July and submitted legal papers on the inquiry to the government in December.
But since then delays partly put down to the EU referendum have left them waiting for news.
Barbara says it's good they're finally meeting with the new home secretary:
"It's been a long time coming - it's been very very frustrating dealing with the Home Office. But now we have the meeting so we feel very positive. we hope that we have a constructive meeting with Amber Rudd and we get a positive response from her."
The meeting comes after the enquiry into the Hillsborough Disaster earlier this year found all 96 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed.
The questions over South Yorkshire Police's conduct during and after the stadium disaster have intensified calls for a similar inquiry into Orgreave - which happened 5 years earlier.
Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham says it's essential:
"I don't think people realise that in that period the police force were used as an army basically - they were sent in to disrupt the strike and it led to injustice on a pretty mayor scale and it's never ever been exposed."
"People will say - why is it so important, it was so long ago. I think unless you open up fully about these things you can never restore trust in the way you want to in the police and other public bodies. The miners’ strike was the most divisive period in the country's history - certainly in its recent history."