MI5 'linked to pit strike'

MI5 planted agents provocateurs within the National Union of Mineworkers during the coal strike in a move to destabilise and sabotage the union, Labour MPs claimed in the Commons yesterday.

The allegation was made in a Commons motion following the 'recent publicity' about Stella Rimington, director general of the security service.

It describes her alleged central role in operations against the miners 'in particular her deployment of agents provocateurs . . . including Roger Windsor, chief executive officer of the NUM, 1983 to 1989'.

The MPs say he was sent into the NUM to make contact with Libyan officials and stage a TV meeting with Colonel Gaddafi, 'causing immense damage to the striking miners'.

They claim his actions led to expensive internal disputes, notably a pounds 100,000 libel damages settlement 'as a result of a letter Windsor forged in the name of David Prendergast of the UDM'.