The shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, has urged the government to “confirm without delay” reports that it will launch a public inquiry into alleged police brutality at the 1984 Orgreave miners’ picket.
It was reported on Thursday that the home secretary, Amber Rudd, was set to appoint a lawyer to carry out a review of material relating to the so-called Battle of Orgreave, in which around 6,000 officers allegedly used excessive force to suppress a strike at a coking works in South Yorkshire.
A source told the Times that Rudd wanted to push ahead with an investigation that would deliver answers that were both “complete and timely”, but did not want “something that could drag on for years”.
A delegation from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) met Rudd on Tuesday to urge her to launch an inquiry. A Home Office source said they did not comment on private meetings but it was correct that the home secretary had told the campaigners she would make her decision “over the next few weeks and certainly by the end of October”.
Burnham welcomed the reports and said it was clear that the government had listened to what the campaigners were saying. “But it is disappointing that it has emerged through an anonymous briefing to a newspaper,” he said. “If it is true, the home secretary must confirm it without delay.
“It is also essential that the campaigners are consulted on the membership of any panel and its terms of reference. The home secretary is to be congratulated for having the courage to continue the progress of shining a light on past injustice. We won’t fully restore public trust in the police until there is a true reckoning about the past.”
A Home Office source said Rudd was actively considering the issue but no decisions had been made and the form that any inquiry would take had not been agreed.
Chris Peace, a Labour councillor for Gleadless Valley and a campaigner with the OTJC, said they welcomed any kind of investigation but it had to be “thorough and credible”. “It’s got to be done properly, with the right degree of independence,” she said. “It needs to be a proper examination and not be tokenistic.”
On 18 June 1984 around 6,000 officers, many in riot gear, are alleged to have used excessive force to suppress pickets at a British Steel Corporation (BSC) coking plant in Orgreave.
A former police officer, Mike Freeman, has said publicly that officers were ordered to write statements for arrests they had not made. A total of 95 miners were charged following the clashes at the plant but their trial collapsed.
South Yorkshire police referred itself to the IPCC in 2012 over allegations that officers colluded to write court statements. The watchdog later said the passage of time prevented a formal investigation, but there was some evidence to support the claims that senior police exaggerated the use of violence by striking miners.
In May, Theresa May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy strongly endorsed calls for an inquiry into the Orgreave clash, saying the public needed to know whether the police had planned an unlawful mass assault on striking miners.
In an article written for ConservativeHome, Timothy, who was one of May’s most senior advisers while she was home secretary, rejected calls to “let sleeping dogs lie” in relation to the events more than 30 years ago.
He argued that the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster had shown that “sleeping dogs in South Yorkshire lied and lied and lied again, not just about their own conduct but about the victims and other football supporters”.
