Tory Energy Minister Matthew Hancock sat on his hands yesterday in the face of a fierce grilling by MPs over the future of Britain’s deep coal-mining industry.

Commons energy and climate change select committee members cornered him on government policy which has seen a £4 million “commercial” loan to bankrupt UK Coal delayed by months and left the country’s crucial coal supplies at the mercy of foreign imports.

Mr Hancock repeatedly brushed off fears that energy security could be threatened by policies which have seen £1 billion ploughed into projects to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel supplies but left the domestic deep-mining sector facing total closure.