Leeds's Tetley's closure: MP fighting for job loss workers

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Leeds's Tetley's closure: MP fighting for job loss workers

Nov 6, 2008

Greg Mulholland (Leeds NW) said it was "dismaying" that 170 workers faced losing their jobs when the brewery closed in 2011.

Speaker Michael Martin said the drinks industry was a "very good employer of labour" and it was right for local MPs to concern themselves with such matters.

He urged Mr Mulholland to hold a short adjournment debate and put questions to ministers about the closure.

Mr Martin said: "Make sure that you are letting the workers in that industry know that you are trying to be their voice here in Parliament."

The exchange in the Commons came as Mr Mulholland raised a point of order to ask which department dealt with the issue of beer.

Your views on the closure of Tetley's brewery in Leeds

He suggested that Defra should be renamed Defrad - the Department for Environment, Food, Rural Affairs and Drink.

Mr Martin said: "I share your fears because I'm a teetotaller but I have a brewery in my constituency and a whisky industry in my constituency and a tobacco industry in my constituency."

Around 37 major breweries have closed in Britain in the past decade, leaving fewer than 35 with the closure of the Leeds site.

Source: Yorkshire Evening Post

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