NEWPORT East MP Alan Howarth has backed a House of Commons motion welcoming progress in compensation payouts to ex-miners and their widows.

And the former arts minister has praised the Argus' long-running campaign for keeping attention focused on the issue.

The Argus has fought for more than two years for compensation payouts to ex-miners and their widows to be speeded up. Our 25,000-name petition called on the government to pay those with valid claims a £10,000 interim payment, and sort out the paperwork afterwards.

Mr Howarth (pictured) said: "We have all been impatient to see faster progress being made in resolving claims for compensation by miners and their widows. The Argus' campaign has been a great help in focusing attention on this issue."

In an exclusive interview with the Argus last month, Energy Minister Brian Wilson vowed that 15,000 former miners and widows in Wales would get their compensation next year. He said: "There is absolutely no financial gain to the government in delay and therefore the challenge is to get the money out as quickly as possible, consistent with the constraints that the judge's ruling imposes."

But he added that he could not set a date by which all claimants should be paid: "Do you have any idea when claims are going to stop coming in? There is no end in sight and no financial cap."

Mr Howarth is one of a number of Welsh Labour MPs to sign up to the early day motion. It follows just days after Labour AMs defeated a Plaid Cymru motion at the Assembly which was critical of the government's handling of the issue. Supported by the Liberal Democrat coalition partners, Labour AMs amended the criticism in to a similar paean to the "progress" made in recent months.

Mr Howarth praised the efforts of fellow Gwent MPs Paul Murphy and Don Touhig in speeding up payouts.

"The sum of £1 million a week is now being paid out, this is a big improvement and owes much to the effective work of the Welsh Monitoring Sub Group established by Paul Murphy and pursued energetically by Don Touhig.

"Brian Wilson has assured me that the breakthrough allowing full and final offers to be made in cases where work histories have not been finally agreed will lead to thousands of offers being made in the coming few weeks. This is good news for everyone."

He pledged to keep pressure on ministers to resolve all outstanding claims "as soon as possible".