Roger Windsor

Roger Windsor was chief executive of the NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) between 1983 and 1989, including during the 1984 Miner's Strike. He later moved to France.

Windsor was accused of damaging the image of the union by visiting Libya during the strike and meeting Colonel Gaddafi, at the time an enemy of the United Kingdom. Windsor was despatched to Libya by Arthur Scargill & Peter Heathfield (NUM General Secretary) in order make a direct appeal for funds from President Gaddafi. The Sunday Times' report on his visit was credited by some with substantially undermining public and parliamentary support for the miners. Both Scargill & Heathfield maintained contact with the Libyans subsequent to Roger Windsor's visit even after the Miners' Strike has ended in 1985. One significant such meeting took place in France in 1985 between Heathfield and Alain Simon (International Miners Organisation Secretary) with high level representatives from Libya.

Then Mirror editor Roy Greenslade later wrote an article apologising to Scargill, saying he was now sure the allegations had been untrue. Windsor himself was later found by the French courts to have signed documents he claimed were forged by Scargill, and ordered to repay funds to the NUM.

Some of his actions during and after the strike led to accusations that he was an agent of MI5. The allegations were raised in Parliament, but could not be challenged outside it due to parliamentary privilege. After the allegation was repeated in a 21 May 2000 newspaper article in the Sunday Express by Rupert Allason, Windsor in 2003 won a libel action against the Express and its then editor, Rosie Boycott. The head of the MI5 branch responsible for 'monitoring' unions and strike activity at the time of the strike, Dame Stella Rimington, gave a clear denial in 2001, saying that Windsor was "never an agent in any sense of the word that you can possibly imagine", and, in breach of normal Government protocol, John Major MP the Prime Minister made an official statement that Roger Windsor was never involved with the government.