OFFICIALS secretly considered bringing in troops to dig graves for the bodies of the dead left unburied during the “winter of discontent”, it was disclosed today.

The idea had to be dropped amid fears of “unseemly scenes” if soldiers clashed with pickets outside cemetery gates, papers released to the National Archives at Kew, west London, under the 30-year rule show.

The spectacle of bodies going unburied by striking gravediggers in Liverpool and Tameside, Manchester, came to sum up the industrial anarchy of the winter of 1978/79 which brought James Callaghan’s Labour government to its knees.

A paper drawn up for the Government’s Civil Contingencies Unit, in January, 1979, warned that 500 funerals had to be postponed, and that while bodies could be stored for up to six weeks in heat-sealed bags, this was “totally unacceptable for aesthetic reasons”.

One option was to bring in troops, but the MoD opposed the idea on the grounds it would be viewed with “distaste” by the local populations in important recruiting areas for the forces.

It warned: “It seems inevitable the menial nature of this task coupled, as we feel it certainly will be, with an adverse reaction from the local population, could have a bad effect on recruiting.”

Permitting families to dig their own graves was also considered and ruled out.

In the end, the best the officials could suggest was to let people find their own unofficial burial sites.

“There is, of course, a certain amount of scope for individuals arranging for burial and cremation of deceased in places which they would not normally choose, but this is best left unadvertised,” the paper said.

By mid-January, Callaghan was close to despair as a strike by lorry drivers led to widespread shortages and brought much of the country to a standstill.

On January 17, he told a meeting of senior ministers he was considering proclaiming a state of emergency at 3.30pm the following day, enabling troops to requisition up to 10,000 lorries.

He was talked out of the idea by ministers who pointed out the numbers involved would amount to only 2% of the total transport fleet while the use of troops could simply inflame the situation.

Four months later, Mr Callaghan was out of office as Margaret Thatcher led the Conservatives to a historic general election victory.