Yorkshire MPs anger at Tetley's move

Yorkshire MP John Grogan has slammed Carlsberg's move to brew Tetley's outside of the county.

In a deal announced today Carlsberg, which is set to close the Tetley brewery, said that while Tetley's Smoothflow will continue to be produced in Yorkshire at Molson Coors Tadcaster brewery the cask brew will be made by Marston's in Wolverhampton.

Grogan, Labour MP for Selby and chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group, said: "Given the closure of the Leeds Brewery, it is of course welcome that Tadcaster, in the heart of Yorkshire, will be the home of Tetley's Smoothflow.

"I think, however, that Freddie Trueman, who used to advertise Tetley's Bitter, will be turning in his grave at the thought of cask ale production being moved to the Midlands.

"By transferring Tetley's cask ale out of Yorkshire, the brand will never be quite the same again.

"I just cannot believe that there was no viable option to produce cask ale in God's own county. Carlsberg has always been very protective of its own heritage but rather careless of other people's. The least they could do now is to consider very seriously proposals for at least part of their Leeds site to be sold off to another independent brewer."

Meanwhile Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland MP, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, has called for a Carlsberg boycott.

He said: "This is an appalling decision by Carlsberg which unnecessarily brings to end more than 180 years of history.

"It's a decision made purely in the interests of corporate greed with no regard for Tetley's heritage as a famous Leeds beer.

"I am calling on the good people of Leeds to show how they feel about this by boycotting Carlsberg lager. They have betrayed Tetley's and Leeds and especially the 170 people who will lose their jobs having given service to the city."