PASSIONATE fairtrade campaigners made their way to Downing Street to issue a plea to Boris Johnson after Warrington collected the highest number of signatures on a petition in the nation.

Jackie Hancock, Trish Powell and Bernadette Bell, from the town’s fairtrade steering group, attended Number 10 on August 7.

They joined Fairtrade Foundation chief executive Michael Gidney and head of campaigns Adam Gardner to hand in the petition and ask the Prime Minister to back cocoa farmers ‘fighting for a fairer deal’.

The petition to make living incomes a ‘priority’ for UK-funded aid projects has been signed by 50,000 people – including almost 1,000 in Warrington.

Jackie, Trish and Bernadette were invited because their group collected the largest number of petition signatures in the nation.

Jackie said: “We were really pleased that so many Warrington residents were keen to sign the ‘she deserves a living income’ petition and delighted when the Fairtrade Foundation told us that Warrington had collected the largest number of signatures in the country.

“It shows that we are a caring community, wanting to ensure that UK trade agreements with developing countries put poverty reduction first, delivering living incomes for all, especially women.”