The Tripe Marketing Board has suspended its campaign to pressurise Yorkshire MPs to spend £2.97 on 3 copies of its publication Forgotten Yorkshire, after Andrew Percy MP for Brigg and Goole broke ranks and became the first confirmed MP in the county to admit to having purchased the book.
In an email to TMB chairman Sir Norman Wrassle, Mr Percy said:
Have happily purchased three. We have a great social supermarket and food pantry in Goole which we support and one of my councillors helps run. We set up the pre cursor in Covid.
I can’t speak for other MPs. In reality of course most of us will be supporting our local good causes and so I wouldn’t read too much into people not replying on twitter.
Sir Norman paid tribute to Mr Percy’s courage in stepping up and buying the book. “Andrew took the Tripe Taste Challenge back in 2013 in a local Morrison’s supermarket and showed he was a good sport even then. Everyone here at the TMB wishes him a Merry Christmas and we sincerely hope he enjoys reading Forgotten Yorkshire. I’d also like to thank Andrew on behalf of the food banks in Huddersfield and Doncaster areas, who will be £6 richer as a result of his £2.97 outlay,” Sir Norman said.
Mr Andrew Percy takes the Tripe Taste Challenge after the TMB threw down the gauntlet in 2013.
Sir Norman said that the Crowdfunder, which had raised £300 in less than a week, was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to persuade Yorkshire MPs to part with some of their cash, and not an underhand attempt at blackmailing them, as some had suggested.
The fund would be renamed and dedicated to funding food banks in Yorkshire at the discretion of the TMB. “It’s probably an ideal way for people who think they’ve already bought enough copies of Forgotten Yorkshire to make a small, additional donation,” Sir Norman said.