The Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard will swarm to the defence of North East Somerset’s hardworking beekeepers on a visit to Radstock this Thursday (5th August at 10.30am).

Luke Pollard MP is the guest of West of England Metro Mayor (and bee fan) Dan Norris. The Labour duo will meet beekeeper Dave Roberts at his hives and sample some tasty Somerset honey.

Sadly local beekeepers have to compete with foreign honey fraudsters who add sugar syrup to their product or harvest it early and artificially dry it out to cut time and costs. They con consumers and endanger legitimate beekeeping with knock on effects for the number of bees.

Honey is the third-most adulterated product in the world.

Luke Pollard MP said: “Ministers know about this practice yet they seem to have done nothing to stop it. But what we can all do is buy local and buy British. That way, we can not only rally behind our farmers and producers but maintain our top quality food, too. Buying local also helps to reduce our carbon footprint, as importing food from abroad has a much higher carbon cost than buying it locally.”

Metro Mayor Dan Norris, who has pledged to make the West of England the bee and pollinator capital of the UK, said: “Producing honey is hard work; one little jar of liquid gold represents the nectar from two million flowers. I love smothering my toast with some of Dave Roberts’ honey. That’s why I’m so pleased Luke Pollard is standing up for our local producers. Somerset honey is much tastier than those imitation jars!”