Ian Lavery got riled up yesterday by Michael Crick’s impromptu interview concerning his huge payments from the National Union of Mineworkers before he became an MP.

Considering his £165,000 pay off bung from the NUM when he went off to be an MP, he was a curious frontman, therefore, for Labour’s new strap-line about the miners being ripped off. As Guido previously reported the incident was reported to the police for investigation…

When he ran the Northumberland branch of the NUM, Lavery received:

• £73,000 to pay off his mortgage.
• Nearly £90,000 in a juicy redundancy payment when he went on to another lucrative job as a Member of Parliament.

If he really believes miners are so hard done by, maybe Lavery should give them some of their NUM membership fees back…