Chancellor meets region's night shift
The Warburton's 'super bakery' in Wednesfield received a VIP visitor in the early hours of the morning as the first stop in a whistlestop tour by the Chancellor of the Exchequer visiting night-shift workers in the West Midlands.
George Osborne toured the bakery before meeting a road crew from Tarmac-Lafarge working on Junction 7 of the M6 and then visiting a Tesco distribution site near Daventry, where he pulled on a high-visibility jacket and took a turn driving a forklift truck.
Mr Osborne said: "Millions of Britons work late shifts, work nights they provide the service that we take for granted in the morning.
Mr Osborne tweeted throughout the night. He wrote: "Just been to Warburtons bakery in Wednesbury to see the night shift produce the bread that'll be on shelves tomorrow am.#Hardworking people."
Later he wrote: "Visiting overnight team on M6 road improvements at junction 7. First time I've met people in the middle of a motorway."
The visits coincided with the latest GDP figures which revealed the UK economy has been growing by 0.6 per cent.
The visit to meet workers from Solihull-based Lafarge Tarmac, on Junction 7 of the M6, allowed the Chancellor to speak to the team working for the Highways Agency on developing the 'managed motorway' between junctions 5 and 8. New overhead gantry technology is being combined with opening up the hard shoulder to drivers at peak times.
Paul Fleetham, managing director of Lafarge Tarmac Contracting, said: "We were delighted to welcome the Chancellor to our site to show him first hand the quality and commitment of our people who work around the clock to maintain and improve our highways. Roads underpin the UK's economy and play a vital role in its recovery, so it is very appropriate that the Chancellor chose to pay a visit to see our teams in action."
