How Scargill begged the Kremlin to fund miners' fight with Thatcher

The documents shed new light on the lengths he was prepared to go to to try to win his fight over pit closures.

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Uncovered in the Communist Party vaults, the papers are the Russian account of one of the most contentious episodes of the bitter year-long dispute.

Mr Scargill, who is now retired but led the National Union of Mineworkers during the strike in 1984, has previously been accused of securing a secret slush fund from Russia and Colonel Gaddafi's Libya after Margaret Thatcher's Government froze his union's funds.

He has long disputed the claims. But the Russian documents show how he discussed ways Soviet money could be smuggled into Britain.

The papers make it clear that the money was signed off by the Russian authorities but it is unclear whether funds were ever transferred into the designated offshore accounts or if cash ever reached the NUM, its leaders or the striking miners.

One document is a minute by two Soviet diplomats outlining discussions at the Soviet Embassy in London with Scargill and other senior union officials.

Dated November 15, 1984, and marked secret, it was sent to the ruling body of the USSR. It makes it clear that Mr Scargill asked for the meeting and discussed ways of getting money into Britain without the authorities finding out.

It states: 'A. Scargill asked to re-address the funds provided for the striking British miners by the Soviet trade unions from [the] Swiss Bank Corporation into [an] account held by Ms N. Hyett.

Hyett was the married name of Nell Myers, Scargill's close friend and a senior NUM official.

The minute adds: 'A. Scargill gave assurance that N. Hyett [would give a] signed obligation to use the money only for the NUM's needs.'

A second document reveals that by February 1985 it had been decided the money would be channelled through Alain Simon, then head of the international miners' organisation in Paris.

It says: 'A. Simon supported the idea put forward by a trustee of National Union of Miners chairman A. Scargill that all the amount one million hard currency roubles [then about £750,000] be transferred into an account of the international association in Warsaw.'

It adds the amount would [be] split into portions of 100-150 thousand hard currency roubles [and transferred] into A. Simon's account... From there it will go to the miners.

'A. Simon and A. Scargill are convinced this channel is the most reliable and provides for full guarantee that the original source of funds can ,t be traced.'

A third document, dated February 4, 1985, approved the deal and is signed by three top officials at the Kremlin.

Mr Scargill told The Mail on Sunday: 'This was all in the documen-tation I provided to the NUM. We met them and demanded that they do something. There was nothing unusual and nothing new about it. This was all looked into.'

'The reason we were meeting people was to stop coal and oil coming into Britain and to get people to give some kind of assistance to the miners.'

Asked about the lengths discussed to hide the Soviet money, he said: 'It is a load of b******s and libellous is that.

'The only money that would arguably have been hidden would be money that did not belong to the NUM. That allegation was thrown out by a British court.'