Orgreave campaigners to stage demonstration outside Home Office

Members of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign say it will be their 'biggest and noisiest' demonstration to date.

It follows Home Secretary Amber Rudd's decision last October not to give the go-ahead for an independent public inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave, where police officers clashed with striking miners on the picket line at the Orgreave coking plant in June 1984.

A total 95 miners were charged with riot and violent disorder over the picket line clash, but the cases were dropped over the reliability of police evidence.

Some previously secret government files on the clash have been released into the National Archive, with more to follow.

Joe Rollin, chairman of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, said: "The Home Secretary's decision not to hold an inquiry into what happened at Orgreave is disgraceful and shows utter contempt and a total disregard for the miners, their families and communities.

"People have spent decades waiting and campaigning for the truth to come out and we will carry on campaigning until justice is established.

"We saw a militarised police force at Orgreave beat up, fit up and lock up dozens of miners."

Kevin Horne, one of the miners arrested at Orgreave, said: "The events on that day at Orgreave and the aftermath represent one of the most grave miscarriages of justice in our country’s history.

"The Home Office files currently being released give us a fraction of the narrative. Only a full inquiry will help us to properly construct and achieve the truth we all need and deserve."