WOODSPRING MP Dr Liam Fox said he was sad and angry, but not surprised, at the redundancies announced this week at Clevedon's biggest employer.

The news that Clerical Medical, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, was cutting 305 posts, 115 of them in Clevedon, was revealed on this website on Wednesday afternoon.

Staff at the Castlewood office on Tickenham Road were called into a meeting at 3pm on Wednesday to be informed Clerical Medical's sales team was being merged with Scottish Widows' salesforce, also part of Lloyds.

It was also announced the venerable Clerical Medical brand would also be gradually phased-out.

Dr Fox said: "This is a terrible blow at a time when unemployment in North Somerset has alredy risen quickly.

"Any redundancies should be voluntary, if humanly possible and I hope that the company and the unions will co-operate in a way which means that compulsory redundancies are an absolutely last resort.

"Obviously I am willing to help in any way that they think might help.

"Sadly, the catastrophic mismanaagement of the economy by this Labour government means that we are likely to see unemployment rise across the country for some time to come. I hope that government ministers understand the human misery that lies behind these statistics."