FEARS that Brexit could lead to more jobs losses in York are “defeatist” and “scaremongering”, according to a senior Conservative who visited York yesterday.

Priti Patel, the international aid secretary and a prominent Leave campaigner, was in York to visit the city-based charity International Service with the party’s York Central candidate Ed Young.

She met charity staff and chief executive Jo Baker, and said: “It was great to visit York today and hear about the work that people in the city are doing to support good causes and make a positive difference.

York Press:

Jo Baker (left) with Ed Young and Priti Patel

“I was really pleased to meet Jo Baker and the team at International Service, and it’s fantastic that York is home to organisations such as this.”

After the visit, she spoke out about job announcements that have hit York in recent months, and defended the Prime Minister over accusations she lacked compassion for Nestle workers facing redundancy. Theresa May was criticised for saying JobCentrePlus was ready to help workers, when she had been asked what the Government was doing to keep jobs in York.

Yesterday Ms Patel said the work rapid response teams do in trying to mitigate losses should not be discounted.

She said: “That’s important work, no one should downplay that. When there are redundancies that brings stress and anxieties to those families involved, and we want to make sure they are given all the necessary support in terms of securing new training and employment.”

She also cast doubt on claims Brexit would worsen the job situation in York and would threaten Nestle’s continued presence in the city, and accused Labour of defeatism.

“We live in a global world, when we leave the European Union we can negotiate better opportunities for businesses to come to York. We can become that place for foreign direct investment, which by the sounds of it the Labour party does not want.”

Ms Patel said she understood the stability that businesses want. “They want good rates of business tax, good business environment – that’s what makes countries and great cities like York an attractive place.”

The minister downplayed fears about the future of York universities, and said with research funding guaranteed by the Treasury it was “simply wrong” to “scaremonger” about money.

She said we should not have a “defeatist mentality that everything pivots around our relationship with the EU”.

British universities are the “best in the world” she added, and global demand to both send students here and host satellite campuses in enormous.