British sauce war: "People in Birmingham are being urged to boycott HP Sauce in an attempt to stop the product's manufacturing operation being moved to the Netherlands. Heinz announced yesterday that it wanted to close its plant in Aston, making 125 workers redundant. Campaigners are furious at the loss of a product "as British as the Houses of Parliament" after which it was named. Britons eat an average of 1.2kg of HP Sauce each a year. Heinz, which bought HP last year, denied that it was reneging on a promise to keep the factory open, adding that the closure would allow the bottling operation for Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce to return to its site in Worcester. But Clare Short, the MP for Birmingham Ladywood, joined calls from a local newspaper for a boycott of HP Sauce to put pressure on the US company. Ms Short said: "This is another closure with good jobs moving abroad."