I was delighted to welcome Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government, Caroline Spelman MP, to the Goole Docks on Wednesday for a meeting about Labour's port taxes which threaten local jobs. These taxes were imposed on businesses retrospectively and now threaten the very survival of businesses operating on the docks. This means hundreds of local jobs are under threat.
The Government has ignored repeated attempts by the Conservatives to get them to look again. Caroline came to the docks to confirm that if elected, the Conservatives will order an immediate halt to the collection of these taxes. This will safeguard local jobs. Caroline and I spent quite a lot of time speaking to workers on the docks who were all as outraged as we were at what the government is doing to our docks.
As David Johnson, of RMS Europe Ltd said, "Only the election of a Conservative government can save jobs on the docks in Goole.".