Sarah Champion MP Renews Call for a Public Inquiry Into the 'Battle of Orgreave'

Sarah Champion MP has written to the Home Secretary to request a meeting with Orgreave Truth and Justice campaigners to discuss the need to hold a public inquiry into events at Orgreave in 1984 and in its aftermath. The site of the former Orgreave Coking Plant is in Sarah’s Rotherham constituency.

Two years ago today, the then Home Secretary Amber Rudd, announced that the Government had rejected campaigners demands, despite widespread reports that an inquiry was about to be launched.

Sarah has now written to the Home Secretary to renew calls for an inquiry to be given the go ahead.

Commenting on her letter, Sarah said:

“Two years ago, the Government pulled the rug out from under Orgreave Truth and Justice campaigners. They had been led to believe that an inquiry would be commissioned, with only the details remaining to be determined. The announcement that followed was a shocking betrayal of their trust.’

‘The Government thinks we will just go away. But we have been fighting for the truth for more than three decades and we will keep fighting until the truth is known.”

Commenting on the need for an inquiry, Sarah said:

“The spectre of Orgreave still hangs over my constituency and indeed across many coalfield communities. A lingering distrust of South Yorkshire Police has only been worsened by subsequent revelations about the force’s actions at Hillsborough and its failures to confront Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham.’

‘South Yorkshire Police is in the middle of a difficult period of rebuilding. I do not believe this can be completed until the truth about Orgreave is known. Only then can public trust be fully restored.”

Sarah’s letter is available here.