Boris Johnson is facing a new challenge today: to ensure British farmlands in post-Brexit trading deals. This comes after a poll showed that Leave voters are more keen than Remainers for quality home-grown foods to be protected.
Nearly three quarters (75%) of those who voted for EU withdrawal believe that all food imported into the UK should conform to British standards.
It is more common for Brexit-backers than Remainers, to demand that we ban imports of food containing banned pesticides.
The Deltapoll findings come amid growing unease over the impact on the UK’s world-renowned farming sector from post-Brexit trade deals, including ones with Australia and New Zealand which critics fear could lead to cheaper, lower-quality produce.
Boris Johnson will be asked again to help protect British farmers in post Brexit trade agreements after a Deltapoll showed that Leave voters wanted to preserve quality, domestic food more than Remainers.
Concerns have been raised that future US trade deals could result in hormone-treated imports.
Nearly three in four Brexiteers – 74 per cent – believe the UK should insist that all imported food is produced to the same environmental standards UK farmers must abide by.
This compares to 66% of Remainers.
Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: ‘This poll shows that protecting quality, home-grown British food has never been a Leave vs Remain issue.
‘However you voted in the EU referendum, it’s clear the British public will never accept food imports that are not produced to the same standards that British farmers have to abide by here.’
The Mail on Sunday’s Save Our Family Farms Campaign has drawn attention to the risks to the UK’s £10 billion agricultural industry.
According to a new poll, 77% of Leave voters believe that all food that enters the UK must be made according to British farm rules regarding antibiotics. This is compared with 70% of Remainers.
In June, Liz Truss, then International Trade Secretary, said: ‘I don’t buy this defeatist narrative that British agriculture can’t compete’
Cross-party European Movement poll found that there was support to protect British quality food regardless of political differences.
Last night, Labour peer and European Movement chairman Andrew Adonis said: ‘Importing chlorinated and hormone-injected food from the other side of the world is not what Britons want.’
Ministers have played down farmers’ fears and highlighted future opportunities.
In June, Liz Truss, then International Trade Secretary, said: ‘I don’t buy this defeatist narrative that British agriculture can’t compete.
‘We have a high-quality, high-value product which people want to buy, particularly in the growing middle classes of Asia.’