Boris Johnson stubbornly refused to apologise for his "shameful" remarks about Margaret Thatcher giving the UK an "early start" on climate change with the mass closure of coal mines.
The Prime Minister sparked fury on Thursday after it emerged that he laughed with journalists about his predecessor's shutdown of collieries in the 1980s, laughing and saying off camera: “I thought that would get you going.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer has said Mr Johnson must say sorry.
But when pressed to offer an apology, the PM's official spokesman simply said: “The Prime Minister recognises the huge impact and pain closing coal mines had in communities across the UK."
Mr Starmer said the PM had "shown his true colours yet again", adding his comments were "a slap in the face for communities still suffering from the devastating effects of Margaret Thatcher’s callous actions".
He said: "The Tories didn’t care then, and they don’t care now.
"For Boris Johnson to treat the pain and suffering caused to our coalfield communities as a punchline shows just how out of touch with working people he is.
"The Prime Minister must apologise immediately."
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford echoed Mr Starmer's anger on Thursday morning as he called the PM's words "both crass and offensive".
He said: “The damage done to Welsh coal mining areas 30 years ago was incalculable and here we are 30 years later the Tories are still celebrating what they did.”
The PM made the comments on Thursday on a visit to Scotland, ahead of the COP26 climate change summit later this year when reporters asked if he would set a deadline for ending fossil fuel extraction.
The PM responded: “Look at what we’ve done already. We've transitioned away from coal in my lifetime. Thanks to Margaret Thatcher who closed so many coal mines [the Prime Minister then laughs] across the country where we had had a big early start and we’re now moving rapidly away from coal altogether.”
He then joked: “I thought that would get you going.”
Between 1979 and 1990, Mrs Thatcher's Government closed around 115 coal mines with the devastating loss of around 200,000 jobs nationally.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) walked out on strike for an entire year between 84 and 85.
Its battle with the "Iron Lady" was perhaps the most bitterly fought industrial dispute in history. Clashes with police often turned violent and striking miners struggled to feed their families. When the strike ended, mines were closed at pace and, with no transition plan, unemployment and levels of child poverty rocketed.
The legacy of Thatcher's Britain endures today in northern England, the Midlands, south Wales and central Scotland, where joblessness is still higher than the national average.
