Government Is Mistreating The Caribbean Nations - Teather

11.45.00am GMT Wed 18th Nov 2009

Sarah Teather is working with Caribbean governments to persuade the UK Chancellor to think again

Brent's local Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather has hosted a meeting of Caribbean ministers in the House of Commons to speak about the devastating impact Labour's unfair tax plans could have on their economy.

The Labour government are planning to slap a massive unfair passenger tax on all travellers to the Caribbean, at a higher rate than those travelling to the West coast of the United States, which is further away. A family of four will find themselves paying tax of £300 on their tickets to the Caribbean, an increase of 87%.

Sarah is campaigning for a tax system that would be both greener and fairer for Caribbean families. This week, Sarah hosted a meeting of Caribbean Ministers, who visited parliament to appeal to the government to think again.

Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East Sarah Teather said:

"It is outrageous that Labour want to penalise Caribbean travellers by hitting them with a passenger tax higher than those travelling to Western America. People in Brent with close friends and family in the Caribbean are understandably furious.

"It was vital that British MPs heard from their counterparts in the Caribbean and I was pleased to host this meeting in parliament. The Caribbean Ministers emphasised that this unfair passenger tax will seriously damage their economy and will be disastrous for the many families in Brent who have links to the region.

"I hope that the Chancellor will listen to the Caribbean delegation and the hundreds of people in Brent who have signed my petition. Flight taxes should be based on distance travelled and the amount of dangerous pollution released, not on arbitrary and unfair boundaries drawn up by a Whitehall bureaucrat.

"Labour's plans don't protect the environment, they just protect American business interests. The nations in the Caribbean are great friends of Britain, and it is unacceptable for the Labour government to treat them in this way."

Ed Bartlett MP, Jamaican Minister of Tourism, said:

"The Caribbean is more dependent on tourism than any other place on planet Earth, and the UK represents between thirty and forty percent of the inbound tourism to the Anglophone Caribbean.

"The recession alone has contracted the flow from the UK by some twenty percent, and Air Passenger Duty is expected to further reduce that flow. The implications of these two developments will devastate the Caribbean economy and contribute greatly to the instability of the region, which is now regarded as a major zone of peace.

"Given the strong relationship between the UK and the Caribbean and the fact that significant numbers of Caribbean people are British, any instability in the Caribbean will also affect Britain.

"We in the Caribbean are particularly grateful for the support that British MPs have been giving to the campaign to re-band the Caribbean, and particularly want to highlight the work of Sarah Teather. Her championship of this cause has given us much hope."

Related Links:

Sign Sarah's petition.

Watch Sarah deliver petition to the Treasury.

Read Sarah's Early Day Motion.

Read Friends of the Earth policy.