Call for emergency food plan and help for farmers

LABOUR HAS called for a new food plan in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as the party warned the Government’s Agriculture Bill allowed for low-quality food imports.

The Bill, which will receive its third and final reading in the House of Commons today before it goes before the House of Lords, would bring the most dramatic change in farming policy since the Second World War.

But Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary warned the Bill did not give the country the strong farming industry it would need in the wake of coronavirus.

Mr Pollard said that the legislation would damage the livelihoods of British farmers and risk food standards, and the party has tabled an amendment to keep current animal and food welfare standards in law.

Mr Pollard said: “Britain is rightly proud of the high levels of animal welfare and environmental protections kept by our farmers.

“We need to ensure this Bill does not allow these standards to be diminished and instead protects our farmers, who are already under great commercial pressure.

“Ministers must use this opportunity to close the loophole in this Bill and stop food produced to lower standards entering the UK food chain.”

He said this would give consumers confidence and “stop our farmers from being undercut by cheap imports from abroad”.

A second amendment from Labour calls for the Government to introduce an emergency food plan within six months of the Bill being made law to ensure everyone can afford food.

In January the-then Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers said the new Bill would break the country free from the EU’s bureaucratic rules and towards a fairer system which rewards farmers,