Freeports are costing a fortune. Why aren’t they being monitored?

The business and trade committee is launching an investigation after its chair Darren Jones said there was no agreement on how their success (or failure) should be measured, writes James Moore

A view of the construction site at Teesside freeport, Teesworks, in Redcar (PA)

Darren Jones MP, the Labour chair of the business and trade committee, has secured for himself a place on the shortlist for what I’m going to call the “Wait, What?” award for June.

I shall bestow this on those who say things in otherwise anodyne-looking press releases that immediately pull you up.

Here’s his quote on the subject of freeports, one of Rishi Sunak’s flagship economic policies, something we have repeatedly been told will be a major benefit of Brexit. If that’s not an oxymoron. (PS: it is.)