Ministers ‘plot last-minute bid to weaken new food and farms watchdog for post-Brexit trade deals’
- The Mail on Sunday’s Save Our Family Farms campaign has pressured ministers
- The Trade and Agriculture Commission will be put on a statutory footing
- Government says it is ‘ wrong’ to claim the commission will be weakened
Ministers have been accused of a last-minute bid to weaken a new food and farms watchdog for post-Brexit trade deals.
After pressure – including from The Mail on Sunday’s Save Our Family Farms campaign – to protect UK food standards, it was agreed that the Trade and Agriculture Commission would be put on a statutory footing.
But now a proposed amendment by International Trade Minister Lord Grimstone to prevent the new body from advising International Trade Secretary Liz Truss on matters relating to ‘human life or health’ is expected to be debated in the House of Lords this week.
Ministers have been accused of a last-minute bid to weaken the new Trade and Agriculture Commission for post-Brexit trade deals. Pictured: gricultural workers and farmers demonstrate with tractors outside the Houses of Parliament as they call for protection for the British farming industry on July 8
Kath Dalmeny, from campaign group Sustain, said: ‘It beggars belief that the Government believes it can protect food standards while deliberately excluding human health.’
A Government spokesman said it was ‘completely wrong’ to claim the commission was being weakened.