'Boris Johnson's crass jokes about coal pits show his inadequacy to handle real change'

The Prime Minister thinks that Thatcher closing the coal mines is something for which we should be thankful.

He’s shown us exactly what he thinks of working-class communities.

Thatcher’s policies destroyed jobs and scarred communities across our country with lasting unemployment.

When miners’ livelihoods came under attack, Keir Starmer was fighting for them in court.

The Tories pulled the rug out from under working families, leaving no support in place. They celebrated and laughed.

Boris Johnson is still laughing now.

But this isn’t just about the past. It’s about the future.

Responding to climate change will lead us to a very different economy. Even the government’s inadequate plans will see a ban on new petrol cars by 2030.

Boris Johnson’s praise of Thatcher shows he has exactly the wrong instincts on how to handle that change.

British police surround striking coal miners in 1984 (Colin Davey/Getty Images)

We need a government with a plan to make sure that quality green jobs are created where they are needed so that no community is left behind as they were in the 1980s.

We need a government that will work with unions to preserve and create new jobs, not try and crush them as Thatcher did.

We need a government that will share the costs of change across society rather than leaving it to the market to push costs on to those who can least afford it, as the Tories always do.

Miners demonstrating outside Sheffield NUM HQ, during the year long miners' strike in 1984 (PA)

We can’t face the future together if we have a Prime Minister in thrall to a failed approach of the past.

And working people deserve better than a Prime Minister who holds them and their communities in contempt.