MINERS accused PM David Cameron yesterday of keeping the public in the dark about Britain’s power security after official figures showed a whopping 21 per cent rise in Russian coal imports since 2013.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) data revealed how dependent Britain now is on imports of the fuel, which accounts for a third of all electricity generation.

Coal-fired power stations made the biggest contribution to the national grid between April and June but the latest figures show that more than half of the fuel burned comes from Russia, currently involved in a trade war with the West over events in war-torn Ukraine.

National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) national secretary Chris Kitchen accused the government of hiding the truth about Britain’s power industry and demanded action to secure supplies.

“You’ve got David Cameron puffing his chest out, but he must know that over 19 million tons of coal a year comes from Russia and, without it, we’re facing blackouts,” said Mr Kitchen.

The ONS figures confirm that to feed the furnaces from January to March 5.23m tons was imported from Russia — up from 4.32m in the same period in 2013.

Mr Kitchen added that the government’s own energy plan foresees coal being burnt for another 20 years. But Britain’s last deep coalmines are earmarked for closure despite sitting on 200 years of reserves.

The last deep coalmines are earmarked for closure.

“It’s a disgrace when we’ve got indigenous coal, and we’ve a highly trained and motivated workforce to mine that coal,” said Mr Kitchens.

The ONS said British coal and other solid fuels dropped by around 20 per cent in the last year to a record low, while in the three months to June British natural gas supplies also fell by 4.2 per cent and oil dropped by 1.1 per cent.

The government has pinned its hopes for energy on cheap but highly polluting shale gas extraction which is bitterly opposed by the public.

This “short-term” fix would give way to a heavily subsidised new wave of nuclear power stations, warned Mr Kitchen.