Thread: Arthur Scargill 'tried to buy his London council flat under Tory right-to-buy scheme'

Arthur Scargill 'tried to buy his London council flat under Tory right-to-buy scheme'

The former NUM president attempted to purchase his central London council flat under Margaret Thatcher's flagship housing policy, according to reports

Mr Scargill claimed that had he succeeded in buying the council flat he would have transferred its ownership to the union Photo: IAN JONES


By James Edgar

7:55AM GMT 15 Jan 2014

Arthur Scargill, the former miners' union boss, tried to buy his London council flat under his enemy Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy scheme, it has been reported.

The trade unionist, who led the 1984 miners' strike against the then Prime Minister’s policy of pit closures, reportedly attempted to purchase for himself in 1993 the central London property that was paid for by his union.

The rise and fall fo Arthur Scargill

Right-to-buy was a flagship Conservative policy introduced in 1990 to help council tenants buy their homes at a discounted rate, taking into account the rent they previously paid.

But according to the BBC, the rent for Mr Scargill’s Barbican flat was paid to the Corporation of London by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), of which the Yorkshireman was president at the time.

The revelation will invoke fury among trade unionists and former miners, who will see Mr Scargill’s attempts to take advantage of a Thatcherite scheme as treacherous and deeply hypocritical.

Evidence of Mr Scargill's attempt to purchase the property in the City of London is contained in legal documents, according to the BBC’s Inside Out programme.
The papers are said to relate to a court case last year in which the 76-year-old lost the right to remain in his Barbican home for life at the expense of the NUM, who had been paying the £34,000 a year in rent.
Mr Scargill claimed that had he succeeded in buying the council flat he would have transferred its ownership to the union, handing over an expensive asset, the broadcaster reported, a notion the NUM has no evidence of.
The right-to-buy application was refused because the flat in Shakespeare Tower was not Mr Scargill's primary residence.
He did not mention in paperwork that the flat was paid for by the NUM and it emerged court case that from 1991 to 2008 the NUM's national executive committee did not know it was paying for the flat.
Over the past decade Mr Scargill has been ostracised by the NUM and is hated by many members who once saw him as "King Arthur", after dragging them through the courts in a row over perks.
Now he is practically a recluse, a far cry from the firebrand union boss who led a year-long miners' strike in 1984 only to be crushed by the Prime Minister.
Almost 30 years on, he remains bitter by that defeat, insisting it failed not because of his action but because he was let down by others.
Divorced and a failed politician, he is now likened to the type of capitalists he once despised.
Chris Kitchen, the NUM general secretary, told the BBC: "The fact that Scargill tried to use Thatcher's right-to-buy scheme is bad enough, but there is no evidence it would have been signed over to the NUM for the benefit of the members.
"We just have his word which 10 years ago would have been enough for me, but not now.
"Unfortunately the perception I had of Arthur the great trade unionist, socialist, just is nothing like the reality as to the man that I know now and that I've been at loggerheads with for most of my term of office.


Arthur Scargill 'tried to buy his London council flat under Tory right-to-buy scheme' - Telegraph

Funny he should get into the news because Suthep has been reminding me of him recently with the rants.

Let us not forget that King Arther already had his own little Camelot




As my grandfather used to say :

' where there's muck there's money '

Exactly what he meant .......who knows....he was always coming out with pithy little sayings. I just somehow feel that when it comes to Arther...it has a certain ring of truth,.

Mr Scargill’s attempts to take advantage of a Thatcherite scheme as treacherous and deeply hypocritical.

treachery, envy and hypocrisy are hard-wired into the behaviour of socialists the world over.

I owned a flat at the Barbican at that time. One could buy them off the local authority without much ado.

Obviously Arthur also wanted an extra discount.

Its being reported that it is a GBP1.5 m flat today. Back then the price was about 1/10 th of that.

I honestly thought the old twat had died.

I hoped he had...... cnut

Don't see a problem with buying a heavily discounted flat off the tories and adding it to the Union's portfolio.

Very Robin Hood if you ask me.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Don't see a problem with buying a heavily discounted flat off the tories and adding it to the Union's portfolio.

Very Robin Hood if you ask me.

He no right to even apply, it was not his primary home, not even sure he had the right to occupy it.
£34,000 a year benefit in kind, should be of interest to HMRC.

My dad was a miner, even he said Scargill was a bastard

Originally Posted by taxexile

treachery, envy and hypocrisy are hard-wired into the behaviour of socialists the world over.

Yup, that is fact.

Originally Posted by xanax

My dad was a miner, even he said Scargill was a bastard

Well at least he didn't sell the fucking miners out like those UDM cunts.