Tate & Lyle cuts: 'crazy'

I am writing in response to your article ‘EU restrictions put an end to weekend work at Tate & Lyle refinery’. The plant is based in a deprived area of my constituency and I am extremely concerned that the jobs that depend on it should be safeguarded.

The CAP rules are unfair on competition grounds as refiners using sugar beet can source as much raw material as they like at market prices up to their quota. The tariffs Tate & Lyle are having to pay have already led to 30 job losses. It is crazy that a supplier otherwise in good health, which sources raw sugar from some of the world’s poorest countries, should lose staff as a consequence of an EU law.

Baroness Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP for London