Conservative politicians 鈥渟hould apologise鈥 for the role Margaret Thatcher鈥檚 government played in the miners鈥 strike, a Midland MP has demanded.
Government papers from 1984, just released by the National Archives, show Mrs Thatcher secretly considered calling out troops at the height of the strike, amid fears union action could bring down her government.
Plans were drawn up for thousands of service personnel to commandeer trucks to move supplies of food and coal around the country.
The 12-month confrontation between the government and National Union of Mineworkers, headed by left-wing president Arthur Scargill, was one of the defining episodes of the Thatcher era.
But officially it was a battle between the union and the National Coal Board. MP Tom Watson (Lab, West Bromwich East) said the papers proved the official line had never been true.
He said: 鈥淭hey said the miners strike was an industrial dispute and that the government was neutral. And these papers have revealed that, actually, it was a political project.
鈥淭hey did try to define miners as the 鈥渆nemy within鈥 and they were using the apparatus of the state to influence the police and possibly even to bring in the army.
鈥淭his was one of the biggest state lies of industrial history and Conservative Ministers should apologise for what was done in their party鈥檚 name.鈥
The papers show officials scrutinised plans which suggested 4,500 military drivers and 1,650 tipper trucks 鈥 around 10 per cent of the national stock 鈥 would be needed to keep coal supplies moving. Since 1981, ministers had been secretly preparing for the showdown with miners which many believed was inevitable 鈥 covertly building up coal stocks at Britain鈥檚 power stations to enable them to outlast a strike without disruption to electricity supplies.
However on July 25, in a letter marked 鈥渟ecret and personal鈥, trade and industry secretary Norman Tebbit wrote to Mrs Thatcher expressing concern coal supplies were set to run out by mid-January.
