The government has been criticised for letting retired miners down by refusing to return the £1.2bn investment return to the miners’ pension fund and putting it into its own coffers instead.

Northumberland Labour leader Scott Dickinson said: “We shouldn’t be surprised when another broken promise comes along from this government.

“However it beggars belief that the Prime Minister sat unashamedly at the business, energy, and industrial select committee last week and bumbled his way through trying not to say why over £1bn had not been returned to the miners’ pension fund.

“Northumberland’s retired miners, who worked in some of the most dangerous conditions of any worker, could have benefitted if the government had done what it was asked to do by the business, energy, and industrial select committee and return the £1.2bn investment reserve to the pension fund.

“Instead, we see yet another example of the government moving the goalposts to suit themselves, while a generation of workers who formed the backbone of the energy industry in this country for many years are let down.”