Ross hits out at 'betrayal' over food imports
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Gail Ross has lambasted Conservative MPs who voted against an amendment that would have guaranteed high standards for food and drink imports, calling their actions "a betrayal of epic proportions".
Mrs Ross, the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, declared: “The Conservative MPs who voted against this amendment to the Agriculture Bill should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
"This opens the door for all sorts of cheap imports and completely undermines the high animal welfare and environmental standards we have here in Scotland.
"Farmers and food producers have every right to be angry and very worried about what this means for the industry.
"It’s clear that the Tories don’t care about the rural economy or the agricultural sector they profess to represent. This is a betrayal of epic proportions and people in the Highlands will not forget it.”
On May 13, the UK Government voted against the amendment which would have banned imports produced to lower food and animal welfare standards entering the country post-Brexit.
The Caithness area representative of NFU Scotland, Arnott Coghill, of Skinnet Farm, Halkirk, said: "This is something we have been against – it is going to cause a problem."
He pointed out that it would mean the importing of food produced cheaply which would affect the overall market. "It is not what we voted for when we left Europe," Mr Coghill added.
The amendment tabled by Neil Parish MP, chairman of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee, was supported by opposition MPs and some Conservative MPs who have long called for food standards on imports to be maintained in order to protect Scotland’s farming and food industry.
Moray SNP MSP Richard Lochhead said: “If there is one thing that our food producers and farmers can’t stomach, it’s the idea that their own government could give the green light to an unlevel playing field and the prospect of a deal that allows imports that don’t have to meet the same high standards expected of producers in this country."
The Scottish Conservatives' press office was invited to comment.
