The woman selling a foie gras ban to Tories
Campaigner Lorraine Platt has brought animal welfare firmly into the sights of the PM and Conservatives
WHEN one thinks of the woman behind the recent raft of Conservative animal welfare policies, one name springs to mind – the Prime Minister’s fiancée, Carrie Symonds.
But the woman known to Conservative MPs as the “unofficial whip” on policies such as banning foie gras and fur is in fact an artist and grassroots campaigner from Surrey.
Lorraine Platt, a painter who lives in Thames Ditton, never thought she would be spending her afternoons explaining policy ideas to the Prime Minister.
The 59-year-old has been a stalwart Conservative all her life. While campaigning in her constituency of Esher and Walton, it broke her heart to hear that her neighbours would not vote for the party because the MP at the time, Ian Taylor, was pro-fox hunting.
She decided to prove that Tories can love animals, too, while on the campaign trail with her husband, who was the chairman of the local party association.
“We were canvassing and knocking on doors for candidates and we were hearing from people who said, ‘Why would we vote for you? We are animal lovers, and you have a policy to bring back fox hunting,’ Ms Platt told The Sunday Telegraph.
“And we thought to ourselves, this is something we feel strongly about and we have no representation in Parliament in a Conservative capacity.
“We started the campaign with a homemade website. It was really basic.”
And thus, the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation was born. Now, almost two decades later, it is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the Tory party.
In the years that followed, her campaign has grown, signing up nowinfluential figures including Dominic Raab, Stanley Johnson, Lord Goldsmith and Ms Symonds, who count themselves as her patrons.
Not only that, but policies she has pushed for, including tougher regulation on hare shooting, a ban on live exports and outlawing foie gras and fur imports, are starting to become law.
While previous Conservative governments have balked at the idea of banning or restricting the food and pursuits their older, traditional members enjoy, Boris Johnson’s regime has wholeheartedly embraced these policies, which are popular with the public at large.
Ms Platt has had to fight against backlash from some MPs, with the former Tory chairman Lord McLoughlin attempting to block her from using the party logo for her group in 2016.
She is now, however, right in the bosom of government, having met with Mr Johnson to discuss her animal welfare manifesto. Ms Symonds has publicly lauded her friend as a “superstar”, and taken her on the campaign trail during general elections. In 2019, at the Conservative Party conference, the Prime Minister’s fiancée made just one speech for a lucky fringe event – Ms Platt’s. In it, she showered praise on the grassroots campaigner for her hard work.
Henry Smith MP, who is a patron of her group, told The Sunday Telegraph: “Lorraine is such a trooper. She is almost our unofficial whip on animal welfare. I am constantly getting messages from Lorraine about this.”
Lord Randall of Uxbridge, who o advised Theresa May on animal l welfare and the environment, says s it is no longer political suicide for r Tory MPs to back policies that go o against the ideas of the traditional, al, older “base”.
Coupled with energetic animal rights supporters in No10, this has meant for an explosion of policies.
“The Conservative Party is not the Conservative Party it was 30 or 40 years ago”, he said. “Twenty years ago, banning foie gras would seem as a complete anathema to Conservative policies.”
Mr Smith said that the appointment of Lord Goldsmith as an environment minister highlighted the Prime Minister’s commitment to animal welfare.
“It’s a bit like Yes Minister where if an administration doesn’t want something to progress they appoint someone who isn’t interested in the project. But in Lord Goldsmith’s case he is appointed because he has an interest in this area – and because of this appointment things start to happen.”
Ms Platt said that in her meeting with Mr Johnson, the pair discussed “many
‘Fish are a huge food sector and they haven’t received the same protection that other farmed animals have’
animal welfare issues. A whole spectrum of issues including live exports, including pig-farrowing crates ... ending trophy hunting imports, foie gras, and seeing an end to UK tour operators promoting elephant abuse”.
Her next campaign is fish welfare, and she recently penned a policy document on it that she has handed to MPs.
She said: “We want to have action taken on fish farms, because fish are a huge food sector and they haven’t received the same attention and protection that other farmed animals have received.”
She said they had sent the report off on March 8, and have already received “good good feedback from Defra at the highest level”.
So, if in the coming years, salmon begin to enjoy more rights, they will know who wh o to thank.