I am honoured every year to attend the Thomas Hepburn Memorial Service.

Thomas Hepburn is a working-class hero, the leader of the first miners’ trade union. He lived, worked and campaigned at a time when the lives of miners were a disposable commodity to the mine owners. The industry, and wider society, were structured to suppress working-class interest, through low wages, dangerous conditions, and no social security.

Thomas Hepburn was born in Pelton in 1795. When his father was killed in a pit accident, he began work at Urpeth Colliery to support his family – at the age of eight. Thomas went on to work at Lamb’s Colliery in Fatfield, Jarrow Colliery, and then in 1822 at Hetton Colliery. The same year, he became a Primitive Methodist and a lay preacher.

In 1825, he founded ‘The Colliers United Association of Durham and Northumberland’, and led the union to a successful strike, winning a reduction in the working day for children under the age of 12 from 18 hours to 12 hours.

The colliery owners organised, destroyed the union, and blacklisted union leaders, including Thomas who fell into destitution. He would eventually be re-employed at Felling colliery, on the condition that he did not engage in trade union activities. Thomas remained active in radical politics as a Chartist, laying the foundations and campaigning for a more democratic political system.

Thomas worked at Felling until he retired due to ill health in 1859. He died on 9 December 1864, aged 69, after a career spanning 56 years and a retirement of just five years.

Feargus O’Connor MP and Chartist, speaking of Thomas Hepburn, said: “He is a noble specimen of human nature, and the people of the North of England have a right to be proud of him.”

I am proud to honour Thomas Hepburn every year, it falls onto each generation to keep our history and heritage alive. It is a history of hard work and conflict, industrial battles and frequent defeats. Everything the working class has ever achieved has been hard won, with the weight of the state and business often turned against us.

Thomas Hepburn stood up to exploitation, he made gains and improved the lives of working men and boys. Through his service and sacrifice he laid the foundation for a political and industrial movement that created a fairer, more equal and democratic society.