SCARGILL LEAVES HIS WIFE AFTER 37 YEARS; My marriage is over he tells pals.
MINERS' leader Arthur Scargill has left his wife after 37 years, it was revealed last night.Loyal Anne Scargill, 57, has moved out of the couple's luxury pounds 200,000 bungalow.
And Scargill, 60, has been dividing his time between a granny flat over his union's HQ in Barnsley, Yorks, and his pounds 300,000 London apartment.
Scargill, who led miners on a disastrous year-long strike in 1984, admitted to friends last night: "My marriage is over."
His closest allies had known about the split since last year but were sworn to secrecy.
A close political friend confirmed to The Mirror: "It has been known for a long, long time that Arthur and Anne were apart and leading separate lives. But no one wanted to betray them and talk about it.
"But the time has come when it's now virtually public knowledge.
"Anne was at a funeral of an old friend of Arthur's a few weeks ago on her own and confided to a close friend there that it was all over between her and Arthur and that she was moving out of the family home in Barnsley.
"She actually moved out about a few weeks ago and is starting afresh. Her daughter Margaret is helping her.
"Arthur is aware that people are talking about his marriage problems. He has confessed that he has a big domestic problem with Anne and they are no longer living together. He said that he was on his own."
The friend said Scargill had not lived at Treelands, the couple's bungalow in Barnsley, for about a year.
He had been living in a flat at NUM headquarters as well as spending time at his 25th floor pounds 300,000 apartment in London's Barbican.
A small group of close aides became increasingly aware that Scargill was drifting apart from Anne as he began to spend less and less time at home.
Anne Harper was just 20 when she married Arthur Scargill in 1961.
Their only daughter Margaret, now a 36-year-old GP in Barnsley, was born a year after their wedding.
While Margaret was still a toddler Anne went out to work to try to support the family.
She spent 31 years at the Co-op as a clerk, ending up on the modest salary of pounds 7,000 before she was made redundant and given a pounds 4,200 pay- off two years ago.
In typical battling style she took the Co-operative Retail Society to a tribunal and demanded her job back.
She said she had been appalled to find her bosses were advertising for 50 more workers while paying her off. Anne was reinstated in February last year and has worked there ever since.
Over the years she was always at Scargill's side at miners' galas and NUM conferences.
But her entry into active union politics was belated, despite marriage to one of the country's most colourful workers' leaders.
She remained in the background during the 1984 strike but in 1992 decided to become involved when Michael Heseltine announced another 31 pit closures.
Anne made headlines by staging a sit-in at a Lancashire pit and Scargill was there to welcome her back to the surface.
Two years ago she worked beside him as he launched his Socialist Labour Party - to fight Tony Blair's New Labour - and stood as a candidate for the party in her home seat.
Scargill works long into the night at the NUM HQ - known locally as Arthur's Castle - keeping in touch with socialist groups around the world.
A refurbishment of the offices three years ago included a bathroom, kitchenette and sleeping quarters for occasional use by one of his London based aides.
But as the marriage crumbled it was Scargill who began using it.
He often drives his grey Ford Scorpio estate through the electric gates to eat with friends and colleagues before spending the night in the Victorian building.
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| Author: | Brough, Graham; Roberts, Brian |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Mirror (London, England) |
| Date: | Aug 7, 1998 |
| Words: | 649 |
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