Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of a “salt and vinegar surrender” after it was revealed that his EU pact would have serious implications for the British crisp industry. Under the terms of the reset deal signed last month manufacturers will be forced to change their recipes to conform with EU bans on eight smoke flavourings.
As a result, flavourings used for things such as smoky bacon crisps, currently allowed in Britain, will see authorisation removed. The pact, which sees the UK align with Brussels on food safety and animal health will once more see Britain conform to rules created on the continent. Reform UK leader Nigel Fargage told the government: “Leave our smoky bacon alone.”
He told the Telegraph: “You have to ask what next? Changes to the way we smoke our kippers? Who knows? The truth is this is all now totally out of our hands.
“Our industries have to change to adapt to how the EU sets the rules, maybe not what our own people, our own innovators, entrepreneurs and industries would choose to do.
“This is all waved away by Starmer and co with a wave of a hand, saying it makes everything simpler and easier. But actually, this genuinely is what sovereignty is all about.”
“I think it points to the fact that this Government has no respect for Brexit voters.”
The view was echoed by Mark Francois, the chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteers, who said: This is a salt and vinegar surrender; an everyday example of what becoming a ‘rule taker’ from the EU in this area of law, now actually means.”
Last year, the EU’s food safety authority said that toxicity concerns persisted surrounding the use of flavourings which were “either confirmed or can’t be ruled out.”
Health risks feared by their use include potential links to cancer.
A Labour Party source told the Telegraph: “British food and drink exports to the EU tumbled by more than a third since we left under the Tories’ sham deal.
“The Labour Government is choosing to put lowering food costs and lowering business costs first, boosting the economy and getting more money in people’s pockets. The Tories and Reform are cooked if they want to reverse that”.
