A Bradford MP has branded Eccleshill dairy bosses "bully boys" after they were accused of poaching a milkman's trade.

Bradford North Labour MP Terry Rooney said Associate Co-operative Creameries was guilty of predatory pricing amid claims that it has been offering knock-down deals to milkman David Clay's customers.

Mr Rooney said the practice would be illegal under a new competition bill due to be passed by the Government in September. But Mr Clay and his wife Valerie said today they would be forced to close within weeks if the Co-op continued to target their trade.

A row broke out when Mr Clay, whose family has delivered milk in Eccleshill and Thornbury for 31 years, changed his supplier earlier this month after discovering other milkmen were getting the same milk at lower prices from the Co-op dairy in Eccleshill.

But after changing to a local farmer, the Clays say they heard from shopkeepers they supplied that Co-op representatives had called offering milk at knockdown prices.

Mrs Clay, of Fairburn Gardens, Eccleshill, said: "We went into one of our shops and they said someone from the dairy had been in and undercut us by ten pence a pint.

"I was foaming so we phoned the dairy to complain and they told us the next step would be to take away our doorstep delivery trade. We got our milk from them for years and now they're trying to close us down."

Mr Rooney, who pledged to take the Clay's case to the Department of Trade and Industry, said: "It's scandalous, they're trying to force him out of business. I cannot understand an organisation as big as this using bully boy tactics on a milkman and all for a few pounds.

Mr Rooney said he believed the Co-op could be acting illegally but that would have to be proved in court.

He added that if a new Competition Bill is passed in September, the director general of the Office of Fair Trading would be able to issue a spot fine to the Co-op of up to ten per cent of their turn-over.

Associate Co-operative Creameries spokesman Martin Henderson denied the company was involved in predatory pricing but added it was important that Mr Clay's customers were still able to buy Co-op milk.

But Mr Henderson refused to comment how the dairy was able to offer milk to Mr Clay's customers at a lower price than the milkman had bought it for.

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