Minister on the rack over threat of pit closures

Labour MPs turned out in force yesterday for a Commons debate to urge a Government rescue operation for miners' jobs. Anthony Bevins, Political Editor, watched the minister helplessly squirm.

John Battle, Minister for Energy, faced determined pressure from Labour MPs to his rear, taunts from the Tories to his front, and the ominous presence of Peter Mandelson, Minister without Portfolio and the Prime Minister's personal trouble-shooter, at his side, during a 90-minute Commons debate yesterday morning.

Frustrated Labour MPs from the coalfield areas of the country, caught between the hard-headed owners of a privatised industry and the Christmas insecurity of miners who again face the threat of pit closure, wanted action.

But Mr Battle had little to offer, apart from an urgent request to Clare Spottiswoode, the Director General of Gas Supply, asking her to consider whether a ban on the re-sale of gas from early gas-fired power stations was anti-competitive.

The presence of Mr Mandelson was last night being seen as an indicator of Tony Blair's real concern that the image of the Labour Government would be damaged by further pit closures and still more sacked miners.

It is known that Cabinet members, including John Prescott, have been trying to help the miners' cause, but the Whitehall consensus is that short of renationalisation or heavy subsidy, there is pitiful little that can be done.

Opening the debate with enormous dignity, Paddy Tipping - who serves as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jack Straw, Home Secretary, a job that now demands complete loyalty to the Government line - recognised that there was very limited scope for Government intervention.

But he warned that, even with a deal struck yesterday between National Power and RJB, the country's main coal mining company, redundancies would follow and up to ten pits could close if production was halved to 15 million tonnes, as forecast.

Pushing the limits of his restricted freedom, Mr Tipping asked Mr Battle to tell the mining communities "more clearly, more loudly" what was being done; he urged the Minister to get the owners and the generators together.

He implicitly criticised the lack of a strategic energy policy, saying: "People won't invest in coal or generation unless they know what the Government policy is. I have to say that there's confusion around this at the moment. I hope you will state your position very clearly."

Mr Tipping also urged the minister: "Now is the time to step off the gas" - a direct attack on the new Government's approval for gas-fired power stations, which displace coal-fired generation. "At the end of the day it is gas generation that is pushing coal off the agenda and off the face of the UK," he said.

Mr Battle, who largely addressed the MPs behind him, rather than the House as a whole, said Labour had received an "horrendous legacy" from the Tories. There was no question of subsidy for RJB, and formal complaints had been lodged with the European Commission about state aid subsidies for coal in Germany and Spain. But even if a stop was put on further gas- fired stations, there would be no benefit for coal until well after 2000.

Clearly delighted by the reversal of roles, the Conservatives went to town. Tony Baldry, a former energy minister, pointed out that Robin Cook, now Foreign Secretary, had come out with a six-point plan for coal when he was Opposition spokesman which had included a moratorium on gas-fired power stations.