Calls for the Prime Minister to visit Stoke's struggling ceramics industry

As Stoke-on-Trent's pottery industry fights for survival, pressure's being put on the Prime Minister to visit the city's factories to see their struggles first hand.

Unions have warned that without immediate government help - other sites like that of Moorcroft in Burslem - will close for good.

Chris Hoofe is from GMB and represents the ceramics sector in Stoke-on-Trent.

He told our Chief Reporter Adam Smith: "We need to hold the government's feet to the fire on this".

"We sent a delegation down to Westminster six weeks ago, which was received really well, and they promised to look at the issues that were raised, particularly the cost of energy. It's the what's that's the thing that's crippling the sector at the moment that, along with cheap foreign imports being dumped into the UK at below cost price, these are the issues that really need to be addressed."

An invitation to Sir Keir Starmer

Chris added: "I implore the prime minister, and then the business minister to come to stoke and listen to the voice of the workers and listen to the employers about just how difficult it is to trade in this sector in the UK.

"Unfortunately, if the government doesn't step up the money, then more will struggle, and I can see others going bust in the future.

"What British Steel is to Scunthorpe, we are to the pottery industry without a shadow of a doubt, and it needs support. It needs support, and it can get it from the government if they just put their money where their mouth is. They say they want to support ordinary working people in the UK. Well, now's the time to do it.

Devastating wider impacts

"It's not just the people that work on the pot banks." said Chris. "It's the local businesses around them. It's the little corner shops, it's the out cake shops, it's the whole community. Everything has a knock on effect to the wider community and the wider economy. You've got all these small, independent traders that rely on the footfall of people going to and from work to pick up the morning paper or to grab something to eat on the way home. You know these small businesses are going to struggle as well. And you can see the decline across the entire city from the demise of of the pottery sector the ceramic sector in Stoke over decades."

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