The inquest on Duggan took place in Wakefield because he had died at Clayton Hospital in the city. The verdict returned was ‘justifiable homicide’. However, Gibbs’ inquest in Featherstone would not return a similar verdict and the jury issued a statement which pointed the finger at the lack of police in the area and Holiday’s over reaction to the situation causing the death of an innocent man.

These different verdicts into the deaths were to create ripples that spread all the way to Parliament. Questions were asked in the Commons and the Home Secretary, H.H. Asquith was forced to set up a Parliamentary Commission.

Witnesses gave evidence to the Commission but it was conflicting to say the least. The story told by the troops and officials varied considerably to that told by the miners and Featherstone townsfolk. It seems inevitable that the miners were not going to be believed especially as the Commission was led by several friends of Asquith.

The report was presented to Parliament and a Commons debate followed. Keir Hardie spoke in favour of the miners and a Commons motion called for compensation to be paid to the bereaved families. Although £100 was paid to the families of Gibbs and Duggan, it was done begrudgingly by the Government. Asquith said that the compensation did not imply the Government accepted any responsibility for the deaths. 

None of the injured were compensated.

Asquith himself did not come out of the episode very well. He acquired the nicknames of 'Assassin' Asquith and 'The Featherstone Murderer' as well as being accused of personally ordering the troops to fire on the crowd.

The Liberal government lost a lot of working class support because of the events at Featherstone. As a result the newly formed Labour Party began to emerge as a major political force. Cunninghame Graham spoke at the funerals of the two victims and James Keir Hardie himself visited North Featherstone within a few months to speak to a large gathering.

Pit manager, Alfred Holiday, lost much of the respect he once had and the magistrate, Bernard Hartley, decided to leave his house in Pontefract altogether.

Perhaps the only local official to emerge with any credibility was the local policeman, Sergeant Sparrow. He did the best he could to defuse the situation but had been overridden. The local community respected him for what he'd done and when he retired in 1899 he was presented with an illuminated manuscript which mentioned his role in 'the trying times of 1893'.

The lock-out continued until November 1893 when the unions and the pit owners finally came to a compromise and miners could start returning to work.