Northerners must move South to do migrant jobs, says senior Tory by Jason Beattie,
Daily Mirror A senior Tory sparked outrage yesterday after saying Northerners should move South to do the work of Romanian migrants.
David Shakespeare, Bucks county council boss, said: “The North may replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards.” He added: “That may be a good thing.”
Labour slammed his remarks as “insensitive and insulting” and demanded he resign from his posts as council leader and as head of the Tory group on the Local Government Association, where he made the comments.
Barnsley East Labour MP Michael Dugher wrote to David Cameron yesterday saying: “Do you appreciate how out-of-touch, insensitive and insulting these comments are?
“Isn’t it time you made it clear that Mr Shakespeare should consider his position and offer his resignation? I am sure I can arrange some fruit picking in Yorkshire for him, once the weather improves.”
And Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, added: “These types of comment prove David Cameron hasn’t reformed his party one bit.
“To see Northerners in this second class, undermining and disrespectful way is typical of a very southern-orientated political party like the Conservatives.”
A Downing Street spokesman said: “I haven’t had any specific conversations with Mr Cameron about cherry orchards… the Prime Minister thinks we should have a flexible labour market.”
But the Conservative chairman of the LGA, Baroness Margaret Eaton, did rebuke Mr Shakespeare admitting that he had made a “horrible” comment.
And Rob Light, leader of the Conservative group on Kirklees Metropolitan Council, said: “It’s the view of an individual and not of Conservatives in local government.
“It’s certainly not the view of Conservatives in local government in the North.”
