THE MP behind a newly reissued book about the miners’ strike has picked Mark Ashton for its front cover — in protest at his communist politics being airbrushed from the film Pride.

Mr Ashton was general secretary of the Young Communist League and the driving force behind the foundation of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners in 1984.

The young activist died in 1987 of an Aids-related illness aged just 26.

MP Hywel Francis is donating all funds raised by sales of the new edition of his History on Our Side book, being launched today, to the Mark Ashton Trust.

And Dr Francis has put him on the front of his book in a bid to ensure his politics are “properly acknowledged.”

Mr Ashton’s heroic role in the dispute was portrayed in Pride, but his role as a Communist Party leader was airbrushed out.

“I knew Mark at the time, we worked together,” Dr Francis, who was also in the CP at the time, told the Star.

“I was the chair of the support group and he was the leading figure in the LGSM.

“It was a clear strategy on the part of the Communist Party to build the broadest range of alliances and that’s what we were doing.

“So it’s an acknowledgement really of the leading role he played in building that very successful alliance during the strike, which has lasted until today.”

The rare snap chosen for the cover shows Mr Ashton campaigning, wearing a Pits and Perverts T-shirt and LGSM sticker, alongside former Communist Party student organiser Paul Hassan.