Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 13 December 2016.
First Minister, the Welsh Government has consistently supported the National Union of Mineworkers’s call for the surplus to be put back in the scheme for the benefit of the retired miners and coal industry workers. Mr Ken Sullivan, who has collected a petition of 8,000 names from my constituency, worked in Oakdale colliery near Blackwood for 24 years. The people of Islwyn, like my grandfather and my great-uncle, like so many in the south Wales Valleys, worked in hard and dangerous conditions, often to the detriment of their health. What further representations, then, can the Welsh Government make to the UK Tory Government in denial for them to play fair with Welsh miners?