MP to work at seaside hotel

Suffolk Coastal MP Dr Therese Coffey will spend a day working at a seaside hotel next Thursday.

She is visiting the Wentworth Hotel in the popular seaside resort of Aldeburgh as part of the Forum of Private Business's 'Business Buddy' scheme, a project which puts politicians in work placements to let them see the value of small firms to the economy.

The visits are also a chance for MPs to hear first-hand the issues faced by small firms because of the current economic climate.

Previous political placements elsewhere in the UK have included business secretary Vince Cable at a furniture manufacturer, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham at a chemical factory, and Green Party leader Caroline Lucas at a fruit and vegetable shop in Brighton.

Ahead of next week's visit hotel manager Michael Pritt said: "There are quite a few issues I would like to address with Dr Coffey, but the two main ones are tax and migrant labour.

"Migrant labour is essential for the tourist industry to function smoothly, simply because often we can't fill vacant posts with local labour.

"We have a real melting pot of nationalities working here - Poles, Hungarian, Czech, and Filipino - and frankly we really need them. We advertised for a chamber maid recently but could not find anyone locally, but were able to recruit a Polish girl for the job, so it's a big issue and we need more not less regulation here.

"Of course the other thing I want to talk about is tax."

By Linsey McNeill