Butchers from overseas given work visas to avoid pig culls

BORIS JOHNSON has caved to the meat industry and allowed foreign butchers with poor English to come to the UK in the hope of avoiding pig culls.

More than 6,000 of the animals have been destroyed owing to the shortage of butchers, industry leaders have said, as they called on the Government to issue foreigners with work visas to ease the shortage.

The National Pig Association said the problem in the meat industry was not low wages, which many argue is causing a shortage of HGV drivers, but stringent Home Office requirements that butchers must have a good standard of English.

That requirement is to be dropped, as 800 seasonal work visas that do not have language requirements are granted to deal with Britain’s understaffed abattoirs.

The Government will also allow the processing of pork products on Saturdays and longer working hours where possible.

Ministers are also set to approve a scheme called Private Storage Aid, which uses taxpayer funds to pay for cold storage facilities for pig carcasses to avoid them being destroyed after slaughter.

Pig and poultry farmers have decried the labour shortages, which have left farms full of animals that cannot be slaughtered, while supermarkets warn there may be shortages on the shelves at Christmas.

Around 1,400 pig farms are affected by the shortages. Together, they supply around 90 per cent of British pork.

Abattoirs have been running at around 75 per cent of normal capacity for the past three months, leading to a build-up of stock on farms.

Last night officials launched a consultation to extend “cabotage” rights, which would allow hauliers from overseas to make unlimited deliveries in the UK for two weeks before returning home. Currently drivers can only make two trips within seven days of arriving.

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said the measures would “make sure foreign hauliers in the UK can use their time effectively and get more goods moving in the supply chain at a time of high demand”.