Inquiry into police clash with miners
An official inquiry into police behaviour at the Battle of Orgreave, one of the worst clashes of the miners’ strike, is set to be announced by the home secretary.
Campaigners allege that South Yorkshire police orchestrated the violence between officers and miners at the coking plant in 1984 before systematically falsifying evidence against pickets.
Demands for an inquiry have grown after evidence of misconduct and cover-up by the South Yorkshire force was presented during recent investigations into the Hillsborough football disaster in which 96 fans died.
Theresa May indicated support for an Orgreave inquiry last year. The news is likely to anger those who feel that too much time and money is being spent investigating historical allegations when police resources are stretched.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, who met Orgreave campaigners in London this week, is expected to appoint a senior lawyer next month to carry out an indepth review of the material in the case before choosing a format for the inquiry.
Whitehall sources told The Times yesterday that Rudd wanted time to ensure that she chose the right structure. ‘‘It’s a question of ensuring answers that are both complete and timely and not [allowing] something that could drag on for years,’’ one said.
In framing its terms of reference, scope and legal status, Rudd will be acutely aware of the Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday that took 12 years to complete and cost £200 million (NZ$364m). She will also want to find the right person for the job and avoid the resignations and false starts that have damaged the national public inquiry into child abuse.
It will also be necessary to avoid compromising police inquiries and possible prosecutions over Hillsborough.
The eventual format may disappoint campaigners who have called for a full public inquiry.
Officials will point to the example of the Ellison Review, which in 2014 produced a highly regarded report into allegations of police corruption in the Stephen Lawrence murder case.
The new inquiry could deal a fatal blow to South Yorkshire police, which is heavily discredited by Hillsborough, its handling of child abuse cases in Rotherham and the conduct of the investigation into Sir Cliff Richard.
The force’s chief constable, David Crompton, has been suspended since the Hillsborough inquests.
Rudd met representatives of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign on Tuesday. She promised them that she would decide by the end of next month whether to hold an inquiry, according to one of those present.
Since 2012 May has ordered at least eight separate inquiries, including Hillsborough, undercover policing and child sexual abuse. In one of her last speeches as home secretary, s May told the Police Federation last year: ‘‘We must never underestimate how the poison of decades-old misdeeds seeps down through the years and is just as toxic today as it was then. That’s why difficult truths, however unpalatable they may be, must be confronted head on.’’
In May this year Nick Timothy, now the prime minister’s chief of staff, went further in an article about Orgreave on the Conservative Home website.
He said: ‘‘The Hillsborough independent panel inquiry showed that sleeping dogs in South Yorkshire police lied, lied and lied again, not just about their own conduct but about the victims and other football supporters.’’
Police actions at Orgreave in June 1984 and over the following weeks have already been heavily criticised by a series of inquiries, including last year’s report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.