Dangerous meat could appear on UK supermarket shelves if the Government fails to adequately fund food security checks at Dover port, the Conservatives have warned.
Shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins also criticised the Government for spending “more than the entire Defra budget to surrender the Chagos Islands”.
Environment minister Daniel Zeichner told MPs the Government is aware of challenges at Dover before adding: “We are on it.”
Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed (Jonathan Brady/PA)
In a back-and-forth in the Commons, Ms Atkins hit out at the Government for “taxing British farming families for dying, slashing winter fuel payments for rural pensioners, and hiking taxes on rural businesses”.
She said: “The head of port health at Dover warned the select committee this week that if funding is not secured within seven weeks, then food security checks at the border will be stopped.
“This will mean unchecked and potentially dangerous meat appearing on supermarket shelves and in restaurants, at a time when foot-and-mouth disease is in Germany. When will the Secretary of State protect out borders and confirm this funding?”
Environment Secretary Steve Reed replied: “The NFU and other interested parties have quite rightly raised their concerns about the situation with foot and mouth that was discovered in Germany.
“We are relieved that there has not been a further spread of that outbreak, but we are taking all appropriate measures at the border to ensure that this country remains safe in terms of biosecurity, and we will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action, to ensure there can be no repeat of what happened around 20 years ago when foot-and-mouth outbreak in this country devastated farming and cost the economy a total of £14 billion.”
Ms Atkins then said: “I don’t think the Secretary of State either understood my question or knows the answer, because I asked him when will he confirm this funding. Compare this relaxed approach with the Prime Minister’s seeming desperation to pay more than the entire Defra budget to surrender the Chagos Islands.
“Now, does (Mr Reed) really support taxing British farming families for dying, slashing winter fuel payments for rural pensioners, and hiking taxes on rural businesses to pay £9 billion to a foreign government on some dodgy legal advice from Labour lawyers?”
Mr Reed replied: “If the shadow secretary of state really cared about value for money, she wouldn’t have wasted … £500,000 relocating her office in the department for health on a project that was purely about her own personal vanity.”
Chairman of the environment, food and rural affairs committee Alistair Carmichael said: “Funding for Dover Port Health Authority is due to expire at the end of March, at the very least can we sort out the financing for this in the next financial year?”
Responding, Mr Zeichner said: “The issues at Dover are significant, they’ve been long running. The funding was not resolved ahead of the general election, it is an ongoing discussion.
“We are very aware of the challenges that are faced, we are on it, and we will make sure that we are talking to the Dover Port Health Authority.”
Elsewhere in environment, food and rural affairs questions, former prime minister Rishi Sunak urged the Government to make it easy for small businesses to provide public sector food.
He said: “One of the barriers that many small agricultural businesses face in supplying the public sector is the complexity of the contracting process.
Former prime minister Rishi Sunak (Jack Taylor/PA)
“The crown commercial service made significant improvements to their portal last year, but can I urge the ministerial team to build on that progress to make it easy for particularly small companies to provide public sector food?”
Mr Zeichner replied: “I’m very happy to look at what he’s suggested and work to make sure these proposals work. We know it’s complicated within world trade and organisation rules but I think there’s a real prize to be had here.”
Later in the session, Conservative former minister Jeremy Hunt asked: “Given that the OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility) refused to endorse the £22 billion black hole figure, in fact they refused to say there was any black hole at all, will the Secretary of State tell the House what possible justification there can be for the removal of agricultural property relied (APR), which will do untold damage to the growth prospects of family farms in my (constituency) and across the country?”
Mr Reed replied: “(Mr Hunt) is fully aware of the appalling state the public finances were left in at the end of his government.
“This Government has had to take very difficult decisions to balance the finances so we can get growth that will benefit the entire economy, including the farming sector that was on its knees after 14 years of Conservative rule.”