STAFF at one of Deeside’s biggest retailers welcomed the Prime Minister to North Wales, just weeks ahead of the general election.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was welcomed to Iceland Foods headquarters, based at Deeside Industrial Park, as part of the first week of his election campaign.

CEO Sir Malcolm Walker said Brexit needs to end along with the three long years of uncertainty.

The aim of the visit was for the major chain to give their corporate views on what needs to be done to help UK business.

CEO Sir Malcom Walker said: “We are pleased to welcome the Prime Minister to our head office at Deeside today.

“Iceland as a company has no political alignment and has never made any political donations, but we do believe that it is in the overwhelming interests of our business and every other UK business to get Brexit done and so end the three long years of uncertainty that we have to endure.

“Certainty will allow businesses to get on with investing, creating jobs and paying the taxes that fund the NHS and all our public services, and allow government to focus on the many other issues that really matter to the country.

“From Iceland’s perspective we would like to see urgent action to reform business rates, create a genuinely level playing field with online retailers, tackle knife crime and shoplifting, and end mindless, time wasting bureaucracy seeking to trip up well intentioned businesses like ours over technical infringements of the national minimum wage rules.”

Iceland employs more than 25,000 people and pays all staff members more than minimum wage, irrespective of their age.

Speaking on the election Mr Johnson said: "I think they will back us because we are the party that will get Brexit done but we are also the party that believes in fantastic public services and investing in our country and at the moment parliament is paralysed.

“We’ve got to have this election only because we couldn’t get our deal over the line.

“We will be offering all sorts of things I think will be wonderful for Wales. We are big believers in infrastructure, better educational funding, the national living wage.

“And this is a party that wants to use its better education, better infrastructure of all kinds and also technology to bring the whole country together.

“The choice for the country is do you want get Brexit done and turn 2020 into a year of prosperity and growth under us or do you want to have another year of drift and chaos and another referendum one on the EU and one on Scotland.

“I'm talking to Malcolm who runs Iceland and they see our deal as being very good for business because it gives them the certainty that the arrangements we have with the EU can continue until we do that fantastic free trade deal.

“But we are coming out as soon as we get a working majority in Parliament, which is the point of having this election, we can get that deal over the line.

“From the point of view of business, all the uncertainty will be gone, that’s the crucial thing for me.

“I think about the good of the country and we don’t want go to on with this delay and uncertainty. It’s been going on for three and half years. There’s a wall of investment waiting to come into the UK, a lot of enthusiasm from around the world seeing an incredible country doing incredible things and they just don’t know what we are doing with Brexit.

“As soon as we deliver on that I think you’ll start to see bigger investments not just in Wales, but around the UK."

Speaking about the issue of policing Mr Johnson said: “It’s about having the right level of police out there and we are putting 20,000 more police officers out across the country.

“Just here in Deeside we will have another 62 straight aways. It is also about supporting those police officers.

“They need to feel confident that the law will back them up when they take knives off of people and it is about making sure that we have the right sentencing policy for kids who carry knives so that if they go out with a blade, then they are going to get the sentence they deserve.

“We also need to do stuff that will divert kids away from knives and gang culture and making them understand that there are better futures.”

During the EU referendum Flintshire saw a majority of 56.4 per cent who voted leave back in 2016, figures show.

The Prime Minister is set to go head to head with rival Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn six days before the General election on December 12.