The Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard will swarm to the defence of North East Somerset's hardworking beekeepers on a visit to Radstock.

Luke Pollard MP is the guest of West of England Metro Mayor (and bee fan) Dan Norris. The Labour duo met beekeeper Dave Roberts at his hives and sample some tasty Somerset honey.

Sadly local beekeepers have to compete with foreign honey fraudsters who add sugar syrup to their product or harvest it early and artificially dry it out to cut time and costs. They con consumers and endanger legitimate beekeeping with knock on effects for the number of bees.

Honey is the third-most adulterated product in the world

Metro Mayor Dan Norris, who has pledged to make the West of England the bee and pollinator capital of the UK, said: "Producing honey is hard work; one little jar of liquid gold represents the nectar from two million flowers. I love smothering my toast with some of Dave Roberts' honey. That's why I'm so pleased Luke Pollard is standing up for our local producers. Somerset honey is much tastier than those imitation jars!"

The Metro Mayor is the directly elected leader of the West of England combined authority covering Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire, the area has a population of nearly a million. The metro mayor has powers over jobs, housing, transport and a 30 year investment fund of £900 million.