Amber Rudd has been praised for resisting an inquiry into the so-called Battle of Orgreave during the 1984 miners’ strike as a former minister in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet said it would have been a “stick with which to beat the Thatcher government”.

The Home Secretary told MPs she made the “difficult decision” not to agree to an inquiry because “ultimately there were no deaths or wrongful convictions” resulting from the conduct of South Yorkshire Police.

The decision not to launch an inquiry into the most violent confrontation during the 1984 strike was hailed by Lord Tebbit, who as Norman Tebbit was trade secretary in Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet during the miners’ strike.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “This is a sensible decision which underlines that the police behaved properly at Orgreave. An inquiry could have been used as a stick with which to beat the Thatcher government.

“Although the same police force was involved there is no connection to the Hillsborough affair where there is a genuine doubt over the competence of the police in the management of the crowds.

“At Orgreave the police succeeded in maintaining the right of men to go to work against the violence of the Scargill pickets.”