Cabinet split on US food deal

A CABINET row is brewing over plans to allow cheap American food into the UK as part of a post-Brexit trade deal with the United States.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox is pushing for agriculture to be included in discussions about a free trade deal, which could be struck within months of Britain leaving the EU.

Dr Fox, backed by Boris Johnson, has told ministers that the move could slash food prices for British consumers and encourage Washington to agree a ‘comprehensive’ deal that would be worth billions to the economy.

But Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom is opposed to the move, warning it could damage British farming, water down food standards and end restrictions on controversial US products such as hormone-fed beef and chlorine-washed chicken. A source familiar with the discussions said: ‘Liam’s view is that this stuff is legal and that the Americans have been eating it perfectly safely for years.

‘Andrea thinks that consumers rightly value the high food standards we have in this country and would not understand why we were lowering them.’

The US has made it clear that it expects agriculture to be included in any trade talks. Bob Young, of the American Farm Bureau Federation, said free access for food products would be a ‘top priority’.

But a Tory source warned that any bid to tear up food standards would breach the party’s 015 manifesto, which pledged to push ‘for high animal welfare standards to be incorporated into international trade agreements’.