Steve Murphy, General Secretary of construction union UCATT, will call for the Government to release all the remaining papers relating to the Shrewsbury pickets.

Mr Murphy will be speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Wednesday 23rd January. Other speakers will include MPs David Hanson, John McDonnell and Tom Watson, the filmmaker Ken Loach, Frances O’Grady the General Secretary of the TUC, Len McCluskey the General Secretary of Unite and leading Shrewsbury Picket Ricky Tomlinson.


The press conference has been called after the Shrewsbury Pickets recently learned that the remaining Government papers on their case will not be released until 2021. The decision to restrict the publication of the papers was made by the former Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke on the grounds of national security.

Mr Murphy, will say: "The news that the Government papers will not be published for at least another 10 years is appalling. What they are hiding is a massive Government conspiracy, which shows that Robert Carr (the then home secretary) connived with the police and security forces at the behest of construction companies to make an example of ordinary construction workers."

The delay in the publication of the Government papers and the possibility that this could delay the pickets fight for justice is particularly controversial given the age of the surviving pickets. The oldest picket is 84 and the youngest is 64.

(CD/GK)