British government must stand firm on chlorinated chicken - Baroness Ritchie

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick added that bowing to American pressure to allow the sale of sub-standard food would infuriate consumers and “undermine the very fibre” of our farming industry.

Speculation that government ministers will allow these products into British supermarkets has grown in the last few days.

Baroness Ritchie said Downing Street is now refusing to endorse its own earlier pledge to reject such a deal. Giving the US food industry permission to sell low quality, low price chicken and beef into the UK would infuriate shoppers and our own farmers, she added.

The Downpatrick based politica said that suspicions are growing that in their desperation to forge a trade deal with America in the wake of Britain’s exit from the EU, ministers are starting to buckle under pressure from US trade negotiators.

Reacting to the British government’s hardline approach, Baroness Ritchie commented: “I make no secret of the fact that I wanted to stay in the European Union. It provides a strong funding support mechanism for farmers and underpins an adherence to sound food standards.

“But I am a realist, and I do recognise that we are leaving the EU. In this context, it is vitally important that the best possible deal is achieved for our food system.”

She added that a trade deal with the US involving the importation of sub-standard food would be completely unacceptable.

“We need to ensure that the health and wellbeing of all our communities is protected, particularly as we continue to suffer the effects of the current Covid-19 pandemic.

“Government must ensure that future trade deals always contain provisions to ensure agricultural imports meet our environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards.

“To fail to do so would undermine both these values and our own producers.”

Commenting as the Agriculture Bill was debated in the House of Lords, Baroness Ritchie added her backing to the call by the Ulster Farmers’ Union and the National Farmers’ Union for a Trade and Standards Commission to be set up to review policy and make recommendations.

“Such a commission could provide a roadmap for the government to meet its commitment to protect the UK’s high standards of production in future trade policy,” she added.