In a statement on July 9, 2024, a spokesperson for Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive), Sinn Féin Poblachtach, said: “Early signs of Labour bootlicking the Tories has been realised.”

“Scratching beneath the surface reveals that the newly-installed British Labour government has agreed to implement a Tory plan associated with economic growth for Brexit Britain. This included 12 Freeports and 74 Special Economic Zones throughout the so-called “United Kingdom”. It is envisaged that these tax sites must be located within underdeveloped land which can be split across three areas totalling no more than 600 hectares. Furthermore, this had become a political pact well before the July 4 British general election. By all accounts, British Labour had already signed off on these “free zones” and become board members of Sunak’s nationwide Freeports/SEZs consortia. Predatory venture capitalists like Blackrock, McKinsey, JCB, are awaiting in the wings.

’’Investment Zones are a place-based policy with the ambition of driving enterprise growth, innovation and job creation in defined areas of the ‘UK’ which have been identified to have strong economic and innovation potential while also being in need of ‘levelling-up’.

“Now Hilary Benn, British Labour’s representative in the Occupied Six Counties is set to unleash a Tory Party backed ‘Investment Zones policy’ with the support of pro-British Stormont and its political parties.

“Sinn Féin Poblachtach will make every effort to be heard in public arenas, opposing such controversial parts of this Tory inherited policy. This includes freeports, tax havens and corporate asset-stripping. The British government has never been interested in improving the economic situation in the Occupied Six Counties and in fact has used its financial subsidies to blackmail the Stormont Executive in the recent past.”

PRO
Comhairle Uladh (Ulster Executive),
Sinn Féin Poblachtach
CRÍOCH/ENDS

Ranganna:[RSF News] Statements