Back UK farmers, says Great British Bake Off’s Prue Leith

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith today leads a new alliance of chefs and restaurateurs urging Boris Johnson to block substandard foods from flooding into the UK under post-Brexit trade deals

Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith today leads a new alliance of chefs and restaurateurs urging Boris Johnson to block substandard foods from flooding into the UK under post-Brexit trade deals.

The move comes as the Prime Minister faces a Commons showdown with Conservative rebels tomorrow. 

They want stronger protections on food standards to stop foods such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-filled beef flooding into the UK, especially from America.

In a rousing call ahead of the crunch Commons vote, Ms Leith, whose son Danny Kruger is a Tory backbencher, said: ‘British farmers are the best in the world – let’s support them this week. Everybody who cares about British high food standards should back our farmers. After all, we are what we eat.’

And she warned: ‘Chlorinated chicken is the least of the problems that could be coming our way in future trade deals.’

Devizes MP Mr Kruger said he would not be joining the rebellion, but declined to comment further, with sources saying: ‘He does not want to get involved in a ‘quote-off’ with his mum!’

Ms Leith’s call to back the nation’s farmers comes after fellow celebrities, including chef Jamie Oliver and fitness guru Joe Wicks, last month used an open letter in The Mail on Sunday to call on the Prime Minister not to ‘trade away our children’s futures’ in the negotiations.

That, alongside this newspaper’s Save Our Family Farms campaign, has resulted in more than 30,000 emails being sent to MPs from concerned voters in the last fortnight. 

And a National Farmers’ Union petition to protect British food has been signed by more than one million people.

Separately, a new YouGov poll for the WWF conservation charity found that an overwhelming 92 per cent of the British public wants current farm animal welfare standards to be maintained in trade negotiations with the US and other countries.

Ms Leith was joined in her call by other leading chefs, including John Williams and Yotam Ottolenghi.

The move comes as the Prime Minister faces a Commons showdown with Conservative rebels tomorrow. They want stronger protections on food standards to stop foods such as chlorinated chicken and hormone-filled beef flooding into the UK, especially from America

Mr Williams, executive chef at The Ritz hotel in London, said: ‘I’m passionate about using the best ingredients and that’s why I support British farmers and always use their fresh, seasonal produce.’

Chef, restaurateur and food writer Mr Ottolenghi spoke of how he was ‘incredibly passionate’ about British produce which ‘has some of the highest standards in the world’. 

He declared: ‘We must value those standards and not allow them to be undermined in future trade deals.’ 

With their combined intervention, the celebrity experts hope to influence MPs before tomorrow’s Commons vote, which is contentious because of International Trade Secretary Liz Truss’s refusal to set up a permanent body to assess the environmental and health impact of any future trade agreements before they are ratified.

A temporary trade and agriculture commission was set up by the Government earlier this year to advise Ministers, but a number of Tory MPs – and a majority of those serving on the commission – believe that a permanent body should be set up to scrutinise the quality of imported foods.

The House of Lords amended the Agriculture Bill last month to require that food products imported under future trade deals meet or exceed UK domestic standards – but Conservative MPs are being whipped to overturn the amendment when the Bill returns to the Commons tomorrow.

However, there was anger this weekend at reports of ‘strong-arm tactics’ by whips, and fears that Ministers will use a procedural excuse to avoid a vote on setting up the permanent watchdog.

Last night Neil Parish, a former dairy farmer and chairman of the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, told The Mail on Sunday that he intended to call for the permanent watchdog to be set up.

Ms Leith’s call to back the nation’s farmers comes after fellow celebrities, including chef Jamie Oliver and fitness guru Joe Wicks, last month used an open letter in The Mail on Sunday to call on the Prime Minister not to ‘trade away our children’s futures’ in the negotiations

‘What possible reason can they have for not enshrining this in law,’ he said. ‘Unless, of course, there was a secret agenda for those teams to cave in and let in cheaper, lower-quality food to clinch a trade deal.’

Former Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers urged Ministers to compromise ‘even at this late hour’, saying it would ‘put to rest any suspicions that at some future point, in order to clinch trade deals, Ministers might allow food produced to far lower standards to flood into Britain’.

Tory backbencher and vet Dr Neil Hudson also made clear he was ready to rebel.

He said last night: ‘By supporting these amendments we are standing up for animal welfare and farming standards both in the UK and globally.’

Ministers have repeatedly insisted that laws do not have to be strengthened.

A No 10 spokesman said the Government was committed to maintaining high environmental, animal welfare and food standards.