Last week Scilly News reported that customs officers who had been moved out of areas like Scilly have ran up massive bills elsewhere in the country.
No the MP for the islands Andrew George has pressed the Government for answers about the cost of removing Customs officers from Cornwall to join mobile teams to cover ports and airports in the South East of England.
The Customs House on the Isles of Scilly has been closed causing 500 locals to sign a petition because of fears of drug trafficking.
It is claimed that hotel and travel bills of well over hundreds of thousands of pounds a month are being run up by South West Customs officers who have been controversially relocated in this way.
Mr George explained to Scilly News: “Local people will find it hard to understand why so much money is being spent to remove Customs officers from our area. It is hard to understand why our communities are being abandoned at a time when hundreds of thousands of pounds of tax payers’ money is being spent propping up this mobile service.”
“By withdrawing Customs officers the Government is effectively waving a white flag to drug smugglers and other that our coastline is a ?soft touch? for easy entry.”