Decline in animal welfare standards is denied
THE FARMING Minister and former Vote Leave backer George Eustice has challenged suggestions that the Government is preparing to water down animal welfare standards postBrexit after reaffirming his campaign pledge to end live animal exports.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post as part of a series of exclusive weekend politics interviews, the Defra Minister also restated his commitment to banning whale meat traders from British ports.
His comments were made ahead of this week’s publication of a House of Lords Committee report which warned welfare standards could be undermined after Brexit as UK farmers struggle to compete with cheap imported foods. They also came amid reports of a split in the Cabinet over claims that the UK would have to accept chlorinated chicken imports as part of a new trade deal with the US.
Mr Eustice, who played an active role in last year’s Leave campaign, has frequently defended the UK’s record on animal welfare while pointing to the EU as a barrier to improving legislation. Ahead of the referendum, he blamed European rules for preventing the UK Government from banning several controversial practices, including the export of live animals for slaughter.
Now the UK is in the process of leaving the EU, he has confirmed that bringing an end to both of these trades remains his ambition. “On live animal exports, we actually included a commitment on that in our manifesto. It says we will explore ways of restricting that trade further [and] we are looking at that issue,” he said. “On the shipment of whale meat...the UK has taken a consistently strong stance on the conservation of whales and we have regularly challenged the whale hunting that takes place.
“If you’re going to take that stance as a country, I think you have got to back that up with actions and if that means stopping the trans-shipment of whale meat through ports like Southampton then we should be wiling to do that.” The full interview will be in
The Yorkshire Post tomorrow.