FORTY years ago, there wasn’t a formal Durham Miners’ Gala. It was the height of the 1984-85 miners’ strike; instead, a strike rally was held. The Battle of Orgreave had taken place the previous month, a mediaeval rout that saw striking miners beaten and brutalised in South Yorkshire. There were striking miners from County Durham there, too.

Many were left with wounds that still haven’t healed.

In our county, people described their villages as being under seige.

Today, on the 138th Big Meeting, we honour all those who participated in the miners’ strike of 1984-85. From the men who took industrial action, to the women who organised, through to all of those who stood in solidarity with mining communities.

We remember them and we remember what they fought for.

I’m proud to represent a community that played an important role in the strike. From Durham cathedral, where Bishop David Jenkins – the pitman’s bishop – stood side by side with striking miners, over to Redhills, the headquarters of the Durham Miners’ Association, which distributed food parcels throughout the country, and provided so much support.

To the extraordinary working-class men and women throughout the county, who chipped in, organised and stood on picket lines. People like my friend, Heather Wood, who set up support groups in the North East, feeding up to a thousand people a day, five days a week. Heather will be speaking today at the Racecourse, too.

It’s incredible that four decades on, the gala is stronger than ever; a beacon of hope to workers around the country.

When we assemble on the Racecourse today, with our banners from different collieries and villages, social justice groups and trade-unions, we’re all united in the same struggle for a better world.

An alternative to the politics of avarice, greed and individualism.

Instead, a politics based on equality, friendship and solidarity.

As the MP for the City of Durham, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Since I was elected in 2019, I’ve fought for justice for mining communities.

I’ll never stop doing that.

Under a Tory government, my call for a pardon for ex-miners who were wrongfully convicted in the strike, as well as an inquiry into Orgreave, fell on deaf ears.

Not anymore.

Labour has committed to an investigation, or an inquiry, into Orgreave.

Not only that, Labour will finally end the injustice of the mineworkers’ pension scheme, a scandal that has affected so many ex-miners in our county, and repeal the undemocratic, anti-trade union laws passed by the Tories.

Over the next Parliament, I’ll be fighting for the economic and social justice our communities deserve.

This year I’m honoured to give the reading during the Miners’ Festival Service at the cathedral, where new banners will be blessed by the bishop.

Whether you’re a believer or not, you’re very welcome to attend.

So, while we remember the past, we can also look forward, with hope, to the future.

No matter what the Conservatives have thrown at us, we’re still here.

They may have bruised us, but they never defeated us.

Our presence in the City of Durham today, at the greatest demonstration of working-class solidarity in the world, is testimony to that.

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