THOUSANDS of sick miners were misled into handing over millions of pounds to Arthur Scargill’s union by a firm of solicitors that has earned a fortune from their compensation claims, an investigation has revealed.
Elderly men suffering from chest diseases and a crippling hand condition were advised to allow the National Union of Mineworkers to fund their legal claims in return for paying part of their eventual compensation to the union.

But what the miners were never told was that in reality, the Government (er the Taxpayers) — and not the union — was paying the legal bills for successful claims.

The solicitors concerned, Yorkshire-based Raleys, have been paid £53 million of public money for their work on the cases settled so far.

The NUM has banked an estimated £10 million from the compensation scheme but has not paid legal costs in any of the 28,000 cases that Raleys has so far handled.

Leaders of the NUM, whose national headquarters are in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, have refused to discuss where its cut of the compensation money has gone and for what purpose it is being used.

But Kevin Barron, the MP for Rother Valley and a former senior NUM official, described the union’s arrangement with Raleys as “a scam from day one”.

John Mann, MP for Bassetlaw, another coalfield constituency, who has waged a long campaign against abuse of the scheme, said last night that there could be no justification for Raley’s actions and demanded that all the NUM money “be paid back immediately”.

The NUM’s money-making enterprise is the latest scandal to hit the Coal Health Scheme, which has spun so badly out of control that the final bill — which was initially estimated at £1 billion — is likely to reach £8 billion.

Of the 750,000 claims that were registered, 390,000 have so far been settled and damages totalling £2.8 billion have been paid to date. Solicitors’ fees have spiralled to £665 million.

After earlier revelations in The Times, a criminal investigation is being held into the actions of senior officials and employees of the Union of Democratic Mineworkers in relation to thousands of compensation claims.

Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, has also ordered an independent inquiry into the handling of the coal health scheme by the Department of Trade and Industry. Its report is expected soon.

From Andrew Norfolk at The Times

Ed: Thats the way to do it. Can New Labour actually organise anything