By Andrew Topping and Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporters
A campaigner calling for justice for former mineworkers and their families has hailed Ed Miliband’s pledge to give £1.2bn back to their pension pots as “music to the ears”.
Former miners and their widows have been in a long-standing dispute with consecutive governments over billions of pounds taken from the Mineworkers Pension Scheme.
The scheme affects the incomes of thousands of families across the East Midlands and the wider country, including many in Nottinghamshire.
Mr Miliband, the MP for former coalfield town Doncaster, was involved in setting up the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee review last year and is the party’s spokesperson for climate change and net zero.
That review found some miners were “struggling to make ends meet”, and more than £4.4bn had been taken from the scheme by successive Governments at that time.
That was despite an initial promise of no more than £2bn being needed to ensure the scheme was protected.
In its recommendations, the committee called on the Government to free up about £1.2bn in surplus funds to provide a “cash boost” for former miners and their widows.
Speaking last week as the party launched an anti-fracking policy in Misson Springs, Bassetlaw, Mr Miliband made the pledge to retired mineworkers across the country to implement recommendations from the review if Labour gets into Government.
Campaigner Mick Newton, a longstanding spokesperson on the issue who is originally from Mansfield, was a miner at Thoresby Colliery near Edwinstowe and has welcomed the party’s commitment.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “Ed Miliband’s comments will be music to the ears of former mineworkers and widows.
“Sadly, we are losing more than 5,000 pensioners every passing year and successive governments have now taken more than £5bn due to a spurious guarantee that has not cost the Government a single penny.
“This long-standing injustice needs to be rectified now, not tomorrow.
“If the Government is serious about levelling up our communities, then this would be a quick and easy way to do just that.”
Mr Milliband said Labour is “absolutely committed” to the scheme”.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The select committee came up with some very important recommendations which we will implement as a Government.
“There needs to be justice for mineworkers.
“We’ve got fewer and fewer retired miners and their families but it’s so important that we deliver justice for them – and a Labour government will.”
When its most recent arrangements were agreed upon in 1994, the scheme included a 50:50 surplus split between the Government and former miners, as well as a guarantee the value of pensions will never decrease.
The BEIS committee recommended the Government should alter the surplus arrangement to a 70:30 split in favour of the miners, describing it as “unconscionable” that former miners are struggling.
However, in its response last summer, the Government said it views the existing arrangement as “fair and beneficial”, stating it is “unable to agree to” the recommendations made by the committee.
At the time, Councillor Ben Bradley MP, the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council and Conservative MP for former mining town Mansfield, described the Government’s response as “disappointing”.
Responding to the BEIS committee’s findings last year, the then-Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was not able to implement the recommendations.
A Government spokesperson added: “Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme members are receiving payments 33 per cent higher than they would have been thanks to the Government’s guarantee.
“On most occasions, the scheme has been in surplus, and scheme members have received bonuses in addition to their guaranteed pension.
“We remain resolutely committed to protecting the pensions of mineworkers, but do not accept that the committee’s recommendations strike a fair balance between scheme members and taxpayers.”
The committee review was held after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a “categorical pledge” to Mansfield miners that they would not be “out of pocket” through the scheme.
However, in November last year – four months after the pledge was not upheld – Darren Jones MP (Lab), chair of the BEIS committee, accused Mr Johnson of “misleading voters” when he appeared before MPs.
In response, the former Prime Minister said: “I certainly didn’t wish to give those voters any false impression.”
