NUM attacks Mansfield MP over miners' pension scheme

However, Coun Bradley has rejected the accusation, saying he works hard to raise the issues around the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme.

Alan Spencer, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers Nottingham Area, said he wrote to Coun Bradley, also Nottinghamshire Council leader, on June 27, expressing his concerns over the scheme and the policing of the Miners’ Strike.

Mr Spencer said: “I highlighted the fact to him that he along with Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated while canvassing on the doorsteps in Mansfield in 2019 stated that once back in power the miners would receive their lost pensions.

“I informed him that with more than 8,000 miners dying each year, it was imperative he should seek to correct this injustice to not just his many mining constituents, but for all miners across the country.”

He has also asked Coun Bradley to ‘seek to correct the injustice to many of his constituents involved and sacked in the miners' strike in 84/85 resulting in them losing out on their pension rights and redundancy payments’.

However, Mr Spencer said he had to yet to hear back from Coun Bradley, adding: “That letter was sent a month ago and he has not had the decency to even respond.

“Is he too busy securing his position under the upcoming new Prime Minister? Surely his constituents should come first and foremost.”

Coun Bradley said he has, since being elected, ‘consistently raised the MPS scheme with various ministers’ and was now doing so alongside his colleague Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield.

He said: “We’ve secured some progress, such as the extension of the guarantee to cover bonuses, ensuring payments from the scheme will never fall, even in dire economic circumstances.

“We both continue to raise the profit-sharing arrangements with ministers, though in truth I have come to the conclusion after five years that major changes are unlikely.”

He said, in terms of issues around the Miners’ Strike, more scrutiny would be needed before anything happened.

He said a technical error had led to the delay in responding to Mr Spencer, which has now been rectified.