A LEADING Euro MP claimed today that the decision by Kraft Foods to close Terry's chocolate factory in York was another example of multinational companies thinking the UK was an "easy touch".

Yorkshire and Humber MEP David Bowe said it was easier and cheaper for companies to put staff out of work in Britain than in many other EU countries.

He said the closure and move of chocolate production abroad was just the latest in a "grim list" of multinationals targeting their British operations for redundancies.

"This is part of an all-too-familiar pattern of large international companies seeing their UK plants as top of the 'hit list' when it comes to rationalising their operations," he said.

"What the Terry's experience again underlines is the importance of pressing ahead with legislation which will put workers across Europe on an equal footing when it comes to employment rights, rather than allowing multinationals to exploit the situation where they think they can get away with closing their UK plants on the cheap," he said.

Meanwhile, the Evening Press campaign to save Terry's has won backing from York's Company of Merchant Adventurers.

The company, a city guild dating back to 1355 which still boasts a membership of 150 leading entrepreneurs from the York area in 2004, contacted the paper to express its sadness at the loss of more than 300 jobs if the closure goes ahead.

Clerk to the company, James Finlay, said: "Our sympathy is with those who face redundancy and, of course, with the families of all those affected."

"Terry's does represent a vital part of York's chocolate-making history and of the city's economy.

"The Company of Merchant Adventurers supports fully the Evening Press's initiative to call on Kraft Foods to reconsider its decision to cease the production of confectionery in York."

Updated: 10:54 Tuesday, April 27, 2004