Miners' strike phones monitored, archive documents reveal
Government papers have revealed there was active "security service monitoring" of the year-long miners' strike in the mid-1980s.
Released by the National Archive, the documents reveal the surveillance was partly used to track down money belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
The money had been hidden in bank accounts overseas to prevent its seizure by British courts.
The papers also reveal that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was warned about the legitimacy of the surveillance.
Former Labour minister and NUM official Kim Howells said: "We didn't know if it was MI5 or the local police station - but we knew somebody was doing it."
30 Dec 2014