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The Queen attacked Arthur Scargill and said striking miners were 'holding the country to ransom' at a 1970s dinner party, it is claimed.

Her husband Prince Philip reportedly called for Scargill's "head to roll" during the meal.

The Royal couple became involved in a heated debate about the strikes at an evening hosted by aristocrat Colin Tennant.

Scargill, who would go on to head the National Union of Mineworkers during the 1984 strike, was at the time head of the Yorkshire branch.

(Image: Birmingham Post and Mail Archive)

He had already made a name for himself as a firebrand orchestrating flying pickets which helped to close a fuel storage depot in Birmingham in a clash called the Battle of Saltley Gate.

The closure proved a rare success in a largely disastrous strike for the NUM in 1972.

The Queen's reported comments are surprising because as the constitutional monarch she is supposed to be politically neutral.

Her majesty's comments came to light in an interview in the London Review of Books with Marxist thinker and writer Tariq Ali.

The 74-year-old recalled how his socialite friend, who attended the dinner party had described the evening to him.

(Image: ayrshire post)

It is claimed she said: “They [the royals] arrived and we sat down to dinner. The whole evening was spent discussing the miners’ strike.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“Philip was abusive, wanting Scargill’s head to roll. But it was the Queen who surprised me. ‘I think things have got really out of control, and this is the end,’ she said.

"These workers are getting too much power, they’re running the country – they’re holding the country to ransom.’”