‘No protection’ for UK food standards
WESTCOUNTRY farmers have hit out after MPs voted down an amendment to the Agriculture Bill which would have enshrined food safety in law.
MPs voted by 332 to 279 – a majority of 53 – to overturn a House of Lords clause tabled by Lord Grantchester that would require all imports coming into the UK as part of future Brexit trade deals to meet domestic production standards.
Fourteen Conservative MPs, including Tiverton and Honiton’s Neil Parish and North Dorset’s Simon Hoare, rebelled to support the farmers in Monday night’s debate, but it was not enough to defeat the Government.
Devon farmer and co-founder of the Ladies in Beef group, Jilly Greed, said: “To find our [South West producers] commitment and long-term investment, being so blithely and shamefully voted away by Conservative MPs, is an utter betrayal, including those MPs who chose to abstain. It’s Brexit trade deal desperation, at any cost.”
Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and a Wiltshire farmer, said following the vote that the “future of British food and farming is at stake”, adding: “Without proper safeguards on future trade deals we risk seeing an increase in food imports that have been produced to standards that would be illegal here.”
But the Environment Secretary, George Eustice, has defended the Government’s refusal to accept the amendment and insisted that a “prohibition” of the sale of highly controversial chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef from the United States would not change.
FARMERS have been defeated in their efforts to enshrine Britain’s exemplar food production and animal welfare standards in law after MPs rejected an amendment to the Agriculture Bill which would have banned low-standard imports.
Despite protests from campaigners and 14 Conservatives who rebelled to support the protections, the House of Lords clause fell by 332 votes to 279 when coming before the House of Commons on Monday evening.
Tabled by Lord Grantchester, it sought a “requirement for agricultural food and imports to meet domestic standards” from January 1, 2021.
Defending the Government’s refusal to back the amendment, Environment Secretary and Cornish MP George Eustice said the legal protection “wasn’t necessary” and assurances had already been given to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) that it would “protect and uphold our standards”.
Speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland yesterday, he explained: “We have already got legislative processes that protect those standards and so this clause wasn’t necessary to protect those standards.
“We already have a prohibition of the sale of things like chlorine-washed chicken or hormones in beef and that’s not going to change.”
Neil Parish, MP for Tiverton and Honiton and chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Select Committee, was one of the 14 Tories who voted against the Government to support the amendment, alongside North Dorset MP Simon Hoare.
In an impassioned plea during the debate, Mr Parish said the legislation was heading in the right direction but the UK should be a “great beacon” on animal welfare and the environment when negotiating future trade deals.
“When we’ve tried to amend the
Trade Bill, we get told it’s not the place to put it, but it’s not the place to put it in the Agriculture Bill either, so where is the place to put it? The place to put it is in this Parliament.
“We, the British, believe in animal welfare, we believe in the environment ... so does this Government, but for goodness sake get the backing of this Parliament.”
Farmers and industry campaigners in the Westcountry have repeatedly warned of the dangers of opening the UK’s borders to inferior quality imports, produced to standards not permitted by law in the UK.
Reacting to the vote, Devon farmer Jilly Greed, co-founder of Ladies in Beef and the Suckler Beef Producers Association, said South West farmers have worked “incredibly hard” to achieve environmental good practice and high animal welfare standards over many years – which the public “overwhelmingly support”.
Mrs Greed, who farms near Exeter, told the WMN: “To find our commitment and long term investment so blithely and shamefully voted away by Conservative MPs last evening, is an utter betrayal, including those MPs who chose to abstain.
“It’s Brexit trade deal desperation, at any cost. Do not doubt for any moment substandard crops and beef, illegal to produce here, will be slipped in through the back door.
“I doubt the farming community will be quite so trusting of a Brexit-driven Prime Minister when it comes to the next general election and the rural vote.”
The Agriculture Bill, with its voteddown amendments, will now return to the House of Lords and there will be further chances this week for debate.