Old King Coal tries again to win office by fighting Welsh elections

Arthur Scargill, the former president of the National Union of Mineworkers, announced yet another bid for political office yesterday when he declared that he would contest May's Welsh Assembly elections.

The former union leader will stand for the Socialist Labour Party on a platform of greater public ownership, withdrawal from Nato, reopening Welsh pits and an end to PFI schemes. Mr Scargill will top the party's regional list for South Wales (East) and under proportional representation could have his best chance of being elected. He stood unsuccessfully at the 2001 general election against Peter Mandelson in Hartlepool. Under the Assembly's PR system, Mr Scargill's party will put up candidates in three regions but will stand in just one constituency, Ogmore in south Wales.

Mr Scargill stood down last year as president of the NUM, a post he held for more than 20 years. The 65-year-old, who courted controversy throughout his career, will be paid £1,000 a month for the next nine years as a "consultant" and will continue as honorary president. He recently became president of the party he founded as a breakaway left-wing alternative to Labour.

Mr Scargill made his announcement at Blackwood Miners' Institute in south Wales. He told The Western Mail: "We are going into the Assembly election on a policy which spells out socialism. We want to see the health, education and housing systems taken into public ownership."

He was due to speak in Devon last night, where he was expected to outline his opposition to war with Iraq. He says the threat of conflict is motivated by the desire to control Iraq's oil reserves and the US's determination to impose its will on other countries.

Mr Scargill said he would be pressing for pits to be re-opened. He also told BBC Wales yesterday that he supported calls for the Welsh Assembly to be given the same law-making powers as the Scottish Parliament. He condemned the Assembly Cabinet for backing PFI schemes.

The Socialist Labour Party's Welsh secretary, Liz Screen, said Mr Scargill's policies "will be about protecting the NHS and other public services".