Dale Vince calls for Battle of the Beanfield to be included in Orgreave policing inquiry

Ecotricity founder was part of new-age convoy heading to Stonehenge in 1985 when more than 500 people were arrested

The entrepreneur Dale Vince has called for the recently announced inquiry into violent police clashes at the Orgreave miners' strike to be extended to cover a similar aggressive clash with new age travellers heading for Stonehenge the following year.

Vince, who was involved in the Wiltshire clash, known as the Battle of the Beanfield, said the truth of both incidents had been covered up by police. He said he believed both episodes were part of a plan by the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, to smash" the miners and travellers, who she considered to be enemies of the state".