A CAMPAIGNER for miners' compensation has criticised the Government for continuing to drag its feet over the issue.

Since 1997, the Government has paid out only a fraction of the full compensation owed to 110,000 claimants.

New Industry and Energy Minister Brian Wilson has vowed to make miners' compensation his top priority.

He backed The Northern Echo's Justice for the Miners campaign and admitted that Labour's first term had failed to deliver.

The new minister also pledged to process more claims in less time.

Alan Cummings, Easington Miners Lodge secretary, has campaigned for compensation for miners for years.

He says the lack of continuity at ministerial level makes a mockery of their attempts to speed through the claims.

Mr Cummings said: "Peter Hain (now the Minister for Europe) promised us that he was the man for action, a man to move things forward.

"How is he supposed to do that now he has moved on? In the four years of Labour Government, we have had four energy ministers - John Bell, Helen Liddell, Peter Hain and now Brian Wilson.

"There is no continuity whatsoever. The role is clearly seen as a bed of nails, and Tony Blair is attaching no importance to that part of the Department of Trade and Industry."

"These men have no records of where they worked, many of their former bosses and officials are dead, and their wives just made their tea when they came in.

"They have to have the political will to accept a man's word."

Read more about the miners' campaign here.