THE government has been accused of pursuing a “vendetta” against retired mineworkers by rejecting MPs’ calls to stop milking their pensions under a scheme which has paid the Treasury £6 billion.

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee (BEIS) carried out a review of a government-imposed arrangement with the mineworkers’ pension fund to tackle what it called a “historic injustice” against former miners.

Following the privatisation of the coal mining industry in 1994, the government said it would guarantee the miners’ pensions against any future losses.