Rishi vows: No hormone beef or chlorinated chicken in UK
THE Prime Minister has promised farmers he will never allow chlorinated chicken or hormonetreated beef to be sold in the UK in any future trade deal.
The PM made the pledge in a letter on the day he held a ‘Farm to Fork’ food summit at 10 Downing Street – aimed at ensuring the UK can have a secure food supply in the future.
The summit was attended yesterday by Kaleb Cooper, who works the land on the TV reality show Clarkson’s Farm, starring Jeremy Clarkson.
Mr Cooper, a farming contractor who advises Clarkson in the Amazon Prime show, arrived at the Farm to Fork suma mit yesterday with supermarket chiefs and leaders of retail, trade and production organisations.
In the open letter to farmers, the PM promises that he will safeguard UK food standards, pledging: ‘Without exception, we will continue to protect food standards in the UK under all existing and future free trade agreements.
‘There will be no chlorinewashed chicken and no hormone-treated beef on the UK market. Not now, not ever.’
The National Farmers’ Union and others have warned chlorine-washed chicken and beef, treated with hormones to speed its growth, could be allowed into the UK in future trade deals with Mexico and the US.
Mr Sunak also backed a key NFU demand to keep the proportion of the UK’s food grown here at 60 per cent.
Downing Street said the Government would put greater emphasis on initiatives including prioritising farmers’ interests during international trade talks, reviewing supply chains to ensure producers are getting fair deal and making it easier to turn properties on their land into farm shops.
Clarkson recently used a column he writes for the Sunday Times to reveal his ‘last roll of the dice’ as he faces financial worries over the future of his 1,000-acre farm.
The presenter wrote: ‘On top of the physical issues, which will only get worse, there are financial problems too. And they’re going to get worse as well.
‘Because the grants and subsidies that I used to get from the EU, to recompense me for selling food at a loss, are dwindling until, in three years’ time, they will dry up completely. These, then, are troubling times, because what am I to do?
‘Farming hurts my back and my knees, and if I attempt to use my land to grow food, I’ll lose money.’
Mr Clarkson reportedly received around £250,000 in farm subsidies between December 2020 and December 2021.
Commenting on Mr Cooper’s attendance, the PM’s spokesman said: ‘That programme has been important in raising some of the issues that farmers face.’
The PM’s pledge on trade talks comes after former environment secretary George Eustice criticised fresh trading terms with Australia, which he said ‘gave away far too much for far too little in return’ – in particular ‘full liberalisation’ of beef and lamb imports to the UK.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey said the Government’s newly announced measures, including a £30million investment in new technologies, would put ‘more British produce on supermarket shelves and plates’.