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The leader of the National Union of Mineworkers at the time of the miners’ strike said he would have continued fighting until the strike was won.

Arthur Scargill was speaking to a rally at Hemsworth Miners’ Social Club in Fitzwilliam to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the industrial dispute.

The 86-year-old addressed a packed hall looking back on the strike and its final days.

He told the audience “We were in favour of continuing the strike until we won.”

Arthur Scargill pictured on the picket line at the National Mining Museum, Wakefield. Picture by Simon Hulme 26th October 2022

He quipped that if the Women Against Pit Closures had a vote the miners would “probably still be out there”.

Asked by the Express if there was anything he would have done differently during the strike, he repeated that the strike should have continued.

Mr Scargill also paid tribute to two men killed in the Featherstone Massacre of 1893.

It was the last time that British troops turned their guns on striking workers in England.

To mark the 40th Anniversary of the Miners' Strike
the community of Hatfield, Stainforth along with ex-miners and their families united for the Hatfield Miners Strike Parade, starting from The Broadway Hotel, Broadway, Dunscroft, along Station Road, East Lane, Waggons Way lead by the Doncaster & District, & East Yorkshire Pipe Band plus the Armthorpe Elmfield Brass Band before arriving at the Hatfield Colliery headgear where Hatfield Colliery Band performed before returning along the historic Emerson Avenue where Miners and Police clashed and finishing at the Hatfield Pit Club. Pictured Former miners' leader Arthur Scargill, 86, who walked infront of the Hatfield Colliery Banner along Emerson Avenue before delivering a speech at the Hatfield Pit Club.
Picture By Yorkshire Post Photographer, James Hardisty. Date: 9th March 2024. — To mark the 40th Anniversary of the Miners' Strike the community of Hatfield, Stainforth along with ex-miners and their families united for the Hatfield Miners Strike Parade, starting from The Broadway Hotel, Broadway, Dunscroft, along Station Road, East Lane, Waggons Way lead by the Doncaster & District, & East Yorkshire Pipe Band plus the Armthorpe Elmfield Brass Band before arriving at the Hatfield Colliery headgear where Hatfield Colliery Band performed before returning along the historic Emerson Avenue where Miners and Police clashed and finishing at the Hatfield Pit Club. Pictured Former miners' leader Arthur Scargill, 86, who walked infront of the Hatfield Colliery Banner along Emerson Avenue before delivering a speech at the Hatfield Pit Club. Picture By Yorkshire Post Photographer, James Hardisty. Date: 9th March 2024.

Mr Scargill said he had visited the memorial sculpture on Station Lane.

He said: “They went down in history as heroes of our class. Four week ago I went to Featherstone to pay homage to those two lads who lie in that cemetery.

"These gave their lives and are remembered today as heroes of the working class.”

Reflecting on his life, Mr Scargill said: "I’m now 86-years-of-age and from the age of 16 I have never swerved one inch from my commitment to my class, to socialism and trade unionism.”

In October 2022 Mr Scargill joined workers on a picket at the National Coal Mining Museum in Netherton.

He spoke to striking staff, which included around 30 ex-miners who conduct underground tours of the former Caphouse Colliery in Wakefield.

The event at Fitzwilliam also included speeches from Orgreave Truth and Justice campaigner John Dunne, Women Against Pit Closures’ Rose Hunter, and music from Barnsley folk band Parson’s Lot.

During the dispute, Mr Scargill claimed the government had a secret hit list of 70 pits set to close, but the government and national coal board said just 20 would shut down.

Cabinet papers, released under the 30-year rule in 2014, showed the plan was to close 75 mines over three years.

Arthur Scargill says he would have kept on fighting until battle was won