Under cover of the Coronavirus pandemic and headlines over the Government’s handling of the crisis which has seen Britain suffer more deaths than any other European country, another major public health story has slipped through barely noticed, and has rarely been mentioned in the weekly PMQs.
The most important farming legislation in generations passed its third reading in parliament despite warnings that in a bid to make the UK market pliable for a post-Brexit US trade deal, protections of minimum food safety standards have evaporated, as have safeguards for Britain’s farmers.
With most MPs still socially distanced at home, MPs passed the legislation’s third reading in a virtual vote – 360 – 211 despite guarantees of a minimum standard to protect British food – and therefor British farming – being absent from the overhaul of UK agriculture. A full list of how they voted in this crucial legislation is below.
As the bill moves to the Lords for a second reading amid outrage from UK farmers, this weekend former Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson expressed his disbelief that all eight DUP MPs had voted with Conservative colleagues for a bill he said has “the potential to be the last nail in the coffin for agriculture in Northern Ireland.”
He warned: “the Bill opens the flood gates to cheap food imports into the UK from around the world. This food will not have been produced to the same standards achieved consistently by farmers in Northern Ireland. These imports will serve to drive markets down at a time when local farmers are under tremendous pressure.”
It was sadly predictable to see Conservative and DUP MPs falling into line, despite previous concerns expressed by those very MPs that have rural constituencies or knowledge of foods and farming, or indeed Northern Ireland – where the farming industry now has big concerns with Boris Johnson’s promises of no border checks and alignment with the rest of the UK rather than Europe evaporating daily.
Just ONE Tory MP rebelled: Helen Grant, Conservative MP for Maidstone and the Weald. Not one Labour, Lib Dem or SNP MP voted for the bill.
Leaving the EU means the UK is also leaving the common agricultural policy, which currently funds UK agriculture to the tune of £3.5bn a year. The Agriculture Bill provides the legislative framework for replacement agricultural support schemes. It is now heading to the House of Lords and on target to pass through parliament by the summer.
Crucially, amendments to protect our food and farmers were defeated and left off the first Agriculture Bill in over 40 years.
Farmers, environmentalists and consumer groups united to beg the Government to honour its manifesto pledge not to undermine food standards and the future of British farming with low-quality imports in post-Brexit trade deals. They warned that without guidelines on food quality, Britain would be flooded by cheap produce from foreign countries where meats are allowed to be pumped full of drugs and animal welfare is much lower than EU standards. British farmers would not be able to compete in price and if they lowered standards too below EU standards, they would lose their main market in Europe and face a catastrophe either way.
“Our trade policy must reflect our moral responsibilities to the planet and the people and creatures that live on it – protecting our natural environment, caring for our farmed animals, and working toward a more sustainable, climate-friendly way of farming and food production,” said the National Farming Union’s president Minette Batters. “We have the chance to become a global leader in climate-friendly farming, and neither farmers nor the public want to see that ambition fall by the wayside because our trade policy does not hold food imports to the same standards as are expected of our own farmers.”
Environment Secretary George Eustice refused to rule out chlorinated chicken and hormone-treated beef being imported from the US in a post-Brexit trade deal and he voted against his own 2019 proposals to protect the UK’s high animal welfare and food hygiene standards by banning the sale of lower standard foods such as chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef when it was again tabled as a Labour amendment to the Agriculture Bill.
Labour’s shadow environment secretary Luke Pollard said the Tories are now “tying themselves in knots to get a damaging trade deal with Donald Trump whatever the cost. This government is in chaos.
“Labour used the exact same text put forward by the Secretary of State when he was a backbencher, that would have protected our food standards. Now he and the Tories have voted it down.”
Rebel Conservative and Labour amendments to hold the Government to previous promises to protect British food and farming were also defeated. Senior Conservatives Simon Hoare and Neil Parish led the push for the Agriculture Bill, which sets out new policy as the UK quits the EU-wide Common Agricultural Policy, to require a level playing field between British farmers and those overseas in future trade agreements.
183 Labour MPs, 44 SNP MPs, 11 Liberal Democrats, 8 DUP, 4 Plaid Cymru as well as Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, voted in favour of the rebel amendment. Only 22 Conservatives voted for the defeated amendment, including Simon Hoare, Neil Parish and former Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers.
The other rebels who voted for the amendment requiring new international treaties on the import of agricultural and food products to ensure products imported into the UK under those arrangements comply with World Trade Organisation safety rules and the UK’s own standards were: Bob Blackman, Claire Coutinho, Tracey Crouch, Roger Gale, John Hayes, Gordon Henderson, Neil Hudson, Simon Jupp, Pauline Latham, Ian Liddell-Grainger, Chris Loder, Jason McCartney, David Morris, Caroline Nokes, David Simmonds, Gary Streeter, Julian Sturdy, Rishi Sunak and David Warburton.
A further 15 Tory MPs abstained, yet the amendment was defeated by 277 votes to 328, a majority of 51, although Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing said some MPs had mistakenly voted the wrong way via the new electronic system – but she added this would not have affected the result.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak later insisted he had been one of those to vote for the rebel amendment by mistake as did his Conservative colleague Pauline Latham.
Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Kate Osborne voted against the amendment to ensure food safety rules – possibly by mistake too.
These are the 328 loyalist Conservative MPs who voted the amendment down:
Nigel Adams
Bim Afolami
Adam Afriyie
Imran Ahmad Khan
Nickie Aiken
Lucy Allan
Lee Anderson
Stuart Anderson
Stuart Andrew
Caroline Ansell
Edward Argar
Sarah Atherton
Victoria Atkins
Gareth Bacon
Richard Bacon
Kemi Badenoch
Shaun Bailey
Siobhan Baillie
Duncan Baker
Steve Baker
Harriett Baldwin
Steve Barclay
John Baron
Simon Baynes
Aaron Bell
Scott Benton
Paul Beresford
Jake Berry
Saqib Bhatti
Crispin Blunt
Peter Bone
Peter Bottomley
Andrew Bowie
Ben Bradley
Karen Bradley
Graham Brady
Suella Braverman
Jack Brereton
Andrew Bridgen
Paul Bristow
Sara Britcliffe
James Brokenshire
Anthony Browne
Felicity Buchan
Robert Buckland
Alex Burghart
Rob Butler
Alun Cairns
Andy Carter
James Cartlidge
William Cash
Miriam Cates
Maria Caulfield
Alex Chalk
Rehman Chishti
Christopher Chope
Jo Churchill
Greg Clark
Simon Clarke
Theo Clarke
Brendan Clarke-Smith
Chris Clarkson
James Cleverly
Thérèse Coffey
Elliot Colburn
Damian Collins
Alberto Costa
Robert Courts
Geoffrey Cox
Stephen Crabb
Virginia Crosbie
James Daly
David T C Davies
James Davies
Gareth Davies
Mims Davies
Philip Davies
David Davis
Dehenna Davison
Caroline Dinenage
Sarah Dines
Jonathan Djanogly
Leo Docherty
Michelle Donelan
Nadine Dorries
Steve Double
Oliver Dowden
Jackie Doyle-Price
Richard Drax
Flick Drummond
James Duddridge
David Duguid
Iain Duncan Smith
Mark Eastwood
Ruth Edwards
Michael Ellis
Tobias Ellwood
Natalie Elphicke
George Eustice
Luke Evans
David Evennett
Ben Everitt
Michael Fabricant
Laura Farris
Simon Fell
Katherine Fletcher
Mark Fletcher
Nick Fletcher
Vicky Ford
Kevin Foster
Liam Fox
Mark Francois
Lucy Frazer
Mike Freer
Richard Fuller
Marcus Fysh
Mark Garnier
Nusrat Ghani
Nick Gibb
Peter Gibson
Jo Gideon
Cheryl Gillan
John Glen
Robert Goodwill
Michael Gove
Richard Graham
Helen Grant
James Gray
Chris Grayling
Chris Green
Damian Green
Andrew Griffith
Kate Griffiths
James Grundy
Jonathan Gullis
Robert Halfon
Luke Hall
Stephen Hammond
Matt Hancock
Greg Hands
Mark Harper
Rebecca Harris
Trudy Harrison
Sally-Ann Hart
Simon Hart
Oliver Heald
James Heappey
Chris Heaton-Harris
Darren Henry
Antony Higginbotham
Damian Hinds
Richard Holden
Kevin Hollinrake
Philip Hollobone
Adam Holloway
Paul Holmes
John Howell
Paul Howell
Nigel Huddleston
Eddie Hughes
Jane Hunt
Jeremy Hunt
Tom Hunt
Alister Jack
Sajid Javid
Ranil Jayawardena
Bernard Jenkin
Mark Jenkinson
Andrea Jenkyns
Boris Johnson
Caroline Johnson
Gareth Johnson
David Johnston
Andrew Jones
Fay Jones
David Jones
Marcus Jones
Daniel Kawczynski
Alicia Kearns
Gillian Keegan
Julian Knight
Greg Knight
Danny Kruger
Kwasi Kwarteng
John Lamont
Andrea Leadsom
Edward Leigh
Ian Levy
Andrew Lewer
Brandon Lewis
Julian Lewis
Mark Logan
Marco Longhi
Julia Lopez
Jack Lopresti
Jonathan Lord
Tim Loughton
Craig Mackinlay
Cherilyn Mackrory
Rachel Maclean
Alan Mak
Kit Malthouse
Anthony Mangnall
Scott Mann
Julie Marson
Theresa May
Jerome Mayhew
Paul Maynard
Stephen McPartland
Esther McVey
Mark Menzies
Johnny Mercer
Huw Merriman
Stephen Metcalfe
Robin Millar
Maria Miller
Amanda Milling
Nigel Mills
Andrew Mitchell
Mohindra
Damien Moore
Robbie Moore
Penny Mordaunt
Anne Marie Morris
James Morris
Joy Morrissey
Wendy Morton
Kieran Mullan
Holly Mumby-Croft
David Mundell
Andrew Murrison
Robert Neill
Lia Nici
Jesse Norman
Neil O’Brien
Matthew Offord
Guy Opperman
Priti Patel
Owen Paterson
Mark Pawsey
Mike Penning
John Penrose
Chris Philp
Christopher Pincher
Dan Poulter
Rebecca Pow
Victoria Prentis
Mark Pritchard
Tom Pursglove
Jeremy Quin
Will Quince
Dominic Raab
Tom Randall
John Redwood
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Nicola Richards
Angela Richardson
Rob Roberts
Laurence Robertson
Mary Robinson
Andrew Rosindell
Douglas Ross
Lee Rowley
Dean Russell
David Rutley
Gary Sambrook
Selaine Saxby
Paul Scully
Bob Seely
Andrew Selous
Grant Shapps
Alok Sharma
Alec Shelbrooke
Chris Skidmore
Chloe Smith
Greg Smith
Henry Smith
Julian Smith
Royston Smith
Amanda Solloway
Ben Spencer
Mark Spencer
Alexander Stafford
Andrew Stephenson
Jane Stevenson
John Stevenson
Bob Stewart
Iain Stewart
Mel Stride
Graham Stuart
James Sunderland
Desmond Swayne
Robert Syms
Derek Thomas
Maggie Throup
Edward Timpson
Kelly Tolhurst
Justin Tomlinson
Michael Tomlinson
Craig Tracey
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Laura Trott
Elizabeth Truss
Tom Tugendhat
Shailesh Vara
Martin Vickers
Matt Vickers
Christian Wakeford
Robin Walker
Charles Walker
Ben Wallace
Jamie Wallis
Matt Warman
Giles Watling
Suzanne Webb
Helen Whately
Heather Wheeler
Craig Whittaker
John Whittingdale
Bill Wiggin
James Wild
Craig Williams
Gavin Williamson
Mike Wood
Jacob Young
Nadhim Zahawi
Brexit-championing Conservative former trade secretary Liam Fox warned the US “would walk” in free trade talks if the amendment calling for food imports to match the UK’s “high standards” were to become law in the UK. But there are now major concerns about the future of British farming.
In another worry for Britain’s ability to feed itself (the UK currently is only capable of producing 58 per cent of its food), another amendment to require a the production of a “coronavirus emergency food plan” addressing and assessing matters including hunger, malnutrition and food poverty as well as cost, availability, safety and supply chain resilience was also defeated by the Government.
The party that is meant to be the party of the countryside voted against all amendments to provide security for UK farming standards.
Nigel Adams Conservative
Bim Afolami Conservative
Adam Afriyie Conservative
Nickie Aiken Conservative
Peter Aldous Conservative
Lucy Allan Conservative
Stuart Anderson Conservative
Lee Anderson Conservative
Stuart Andrew Conservative
Caroline Ansell Conservative
Edward Argar Conservative
Sarah Atherton Conservative
Victoria Atkins Conservative
Gareth Bacon Conservative
Richard Bacon Conservative
Kemi Badenoch Conservative
Shaun Bailey Conservative
Duncan Baker Conservative
Steven Baker Conservative
Harriett Baldwin Conservative
Steve Barclay Conservative
John Baron Conservative
Simon Baynes Conservative
Aaron Bell Conservative
Scott Benton Conservative
Paul Beresford Conservative
Jake Berry Conservative
Saqib Bhatti Conservative
Bob Blackman Conservative
Crispin Blunt Conservative
Peter Bone Conservative
Andrew Bowie Conservative
Karen Bradley Conservative
Ben Bradley Conservative
Graham Brady Conservative
Suella Braverman Conservative
Jack Brereton Conservative
Andrew Bridgen Conservative
Steve Brine Conservative
Paul Bristow Conservative
Sara Britcliffe Conservative
James Brokenshire Conservative
Anthony Browne Conservative
Fiona Bruce Conservative
Felicity Buchan Conservative
Robert Buckland Conservative
Alex Burghart Conservative
Rob Butler Conservative
Alun Cairns Conservative
Gregory Campbell DUP
Andy Carter Conservative
James Cartlidge Conservative
Bill Cash Conservative
Miriam Cates Conservative
Maria Caulfield Conservative
Alex Chalk Conservative
Rehman Chishti Conservative
Christopher Chope Conservative
Jo Churchill Conservative
Greg Clark Conservative
Simon Clarke Conservative
Theo Clarke Conservative
Brendan Clarke-Smith Conservative
Chris Clarkson Conservative
James Cleverly Conservative
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Conservative
Therese Coffey Conservative
Elliot Colburn Conservative
Damian Collins Conservative
Alberto Costa Conservative
Robert Courts Conservative
Claire Coutinho Conservative
Geoffrey Cox Conservative
Stephen Crabb Conservative
Virginia Crosbie Conservative
Tracey Crouch Conservative
James Daly Conservative
David Davies Conservative
Mims Davies Conservative
James Davies Conservative
Philip Davies Conservative
Gareth Davies Conservative
David Davis Conservative
Dehenna Davison Conservative
Caroline Dinenage Conservative
Sarah Dines Conservative
Jonathan Djanogly Conservative
Leo Docherty Conservative
Jeffrey M. Donaldson DUP
Michelle Donelan Conservative
Nadine Dorries Conservative
Steve Double Conservative
Oliver Dowden Conservative
Jackie Doyle-Price Conservative
Richard Drax Conservative
Flick Drummond Conservative
James Duddridge Conservative
David Duguid Conservative
Iain Duncan Smith Conservative
Philip Dunne Conservative
Mark Eastwood Conservative
Ruth Edwards Conservative
Michael Ellis Conservative
Tobias Ellwood Conservative
Natalie Elphicke Conservative
George Eustice Conservative
Luke Evans Conservative
David Evennett Conservative
Ben Everitt Conservative
Michael Fabricant Conservative
Laura Farris Conservative
Simon Fell Conservative
Nicholas Fletcher Conservative
Katherine Fletcher Conservative
Mark Fletcher Conservative
Vicky Ford Conservative
Kevin Foster Conservative
Liam Fox Conservative
Mark Francois Conservative
Lucy Frazer Conservative
George Freeman Conservative
Mike Freer Conservative
Richard Fuller Conservative
Marcus Fysh Conservative
Roger Gale Conservative
Mark Garnier Conservative
Nusrat Ghani Conservative
Nick Gibb Conservative
Peter Gibson Conservative
Jo Gideon Conservative
Dame Cheryl Gillan Conservative
Paul Girvan DUP
John Glen Conservative
Robert Goodwill Conservative
Michael Gove Conservative
James Gray Conservative
Chris Grayling Conservative
Chris Green Conservative
Damian Green Conservative
Andrew Griffith Conservative
Kate Griffiths Conservative
James Grundy Conservative
Jonathan Gullis Conservative
Robert Halfon Conservative
Luke Hall Conservative
Stephen Hammond Conservative
Greg Hands Conservative
Mark Harper Conservative
Rebecca Harris Conservative
Trudy Harrison Conservative
Sally-Ann Hart Conservative
Simon Hart Conservative
John Hayes Conservative
Oliver Heald Conservative
James Heappey Conservative
Chris Heaton-Harris Conservative
Gordon Henderson Conservative
Darren Henry Conservative
Antony Higginbotham Conservative
Damian Hinds Conservative
Simon Hoare Conservative
Kevin Hollinrake Conservative
Philip Hollobone Conservative
Adam Holloway Conservative
Paul Holmes Conservative
John Howell Conservative
Paul Howell Conservative
Nigel Huddleston Conservative
Neil Hudson Conservative
Eddie Hughes Conservative
Tom Hunt Conservative
Jane Hunt Conservative
Jeremy Hunt Conservative
Alister Jack Conservative
Sajid Javid Conservative
Ranil Jayawardena Conservative
Bernard Jenkin Conservative
Mark Jenkinson Conservative
Andrea Jenkyns Conservative
Dr Caroline Johnson Conservative
Gareth Johnson Conservative
David Johnston Conservative
Marcus Jones Conservative
David Jones Conservative
Fay Jones Conservative
Andrew Jones Conservative
Simon Jupp Conservative
Daniel Kawczynski Conservative
Alicia Kearns Conservative
Gillian Keegan Conservative
Imran Ahmad Khan Conservative
Greg Knight Conservative
Julian Knight Conservative
Danny Kruger Conservative
Kwasi Kwarteng Conservative
John Lamont Conservative
Robert Largan Conservative
Pauline Latham Conservative
Andrea Leadsom Conservative
Edward Leigh Conservative
Ian Levy Conservative
Andrew Lewer Conservative
Julian Lewis Conservative
Brandon Lewis Conservative
Ian Liddell-Grainger Conservative
Carla Lockhart DUP
Chris Loder Conservative
Mark Logan Conservative
Marco Longhi Conservative
Julia Lopez Conservative
Jack Lopresti Conservative
Jonathan Lord Conservative
Tim Loughton Conservative
Craig Mackinlay Conservative
Cherilyn Mackrory Conservative
Rachel Maclean Conservative
Alan Mak Conservative
Kit Malthouse Conservative
Anthony Mangnall Conservative
Scott Mann Conservative
Julie Marson Conservative
Theresa May Conservative
Jerome Mayhew Conservative
Paul Maynard Conservative
Karl McCartney Conservative
Jason McCartney Conservative
Stephen McPartland Conservative
Esther McVey Conservative
Mark Menzies Conservative
Johnny Mercer Conservative
Huw Merriman Conservative
Stephen Metcalfe Conservative
Robin Millar Conservative
Maria Miller Conservative
Amanda Milling Conservative
Nigel Mills Conservative
Andrew Mitchell Conservative
Gagan Mohindra Conservative
Robbie Moore Conservative
Damien Moore Conservative
Penny Mordaunt Conservative
David Morris Conservative
Anne Marie Morris Conservative
James Morris Conservative
Joy Morrissey Conservative
Wendy Morton Conservative
Kieran Mullan Conservative
Holly Mumby-Croft Conservative
David Mundell Conservative
Sheryll Murray Conservative
Andrew Murrison Conservative
Bob Neill Conservative
Lia Nici Conservative
Caroline Nokes Conservative
Jesse Norman Conservative
Neil O’Brien Conservative
Matthew Offord Conservative
Guy Opperman Conservative
Ian Paisley Jnr DUP
Neil Parish Conservative
Priti Patel Conservative
Owen Paterson Conservative
Mark Pawsey Conservative
Mike Penning Conservative
John Penrose Conservative
Andrew Percy Conservative
Chris Philp Conservative
Christopher Pincher Conservative
Daniel Poulter Conservative
Rebecca Pow Conservative
Victoria Prentis Conservative
Mark Pritchard Conservative
Tom Pursglove Conservative
Jeremy Quin Conservative
Will Quince Conservative
Dominic Raab Conservative
Tom Randall Conservative
John Redwood Conservative
Jacob Rees-Mogg Conservative
Nicola Richards Conservative
Angela Richardson Conservative
Rob Roberts Conservative
Laurence Robertson Conservative
Mary Robinson Conservative
Gavin Robinson DUP
Andrew Rosindell Conservative
Douglas Ross Conservative
Lee Rowley Conservative
Dean Russell Conservative
David Rutley Conservative
Gary Sambrook Conservative
Selaine Saxby Conservative
Paul Scully Conservative
Bob Seely Conservative
Andrew Selous Conservative
Jim Shannon DUP
Grant Shapps Conservative
Alok Sharma Conservative
Alec Shelbrooke Conservative
David Simmonds Conservative
Chris Skidmore Conservative
Chloe Smith Conservative
Royston Smith Conservative
Julian Smith Conservative
Henry Smith Conservative
Greg Smith Conservative
Amanda Solloway Conservative
Ben Spencer Conservative
Mark Spencer Conservative
Alexander Stafford Conservative
Andrew Stephenson Conservative
Jane Stevenson Conservative
John Stevenson Conservative
Iain Stewart Conservative
Bob Stewart Conservative
Gary Streeter Conservative
Mel Stride Conservative
Graham Stuart Conservative
Julian Sturdy Conservative
Rishi Sunak Conservative
James Sunderland Conservative
Desmond Swayne Conservative
Robert Syms Conservative
Derek Thomas Conservative
Maggie Throup Conservative
Edward Timpson Conservative
Kelly Tolhurst Conservative
Justin Tomlinson Conservative
Michael Tomlinson Conservative
Craig Tracey Conservative
Anne-Marie Trevelyan Conservative
Laura Trott Conservative
Elizabeth Truss Conservative
Thomas Tugendhat Conservative
Shailesh Vara Conservative
Martin Vickers Conservative
Matt Vickers Conservative
Theresa Villiers Conservative
Christian Wakeford Conservative
Charles Walker Conservative
Robin Walker Conservative
Ben Wallace Conservative
Jamie Wallis Conservative
David Warburton Conservative
Matt Warman Conservative
Giles Watling Conservative
Suzanne Webb Conservative
Helen Whately Conservative
Heather Wheeler Conservative
Craig Whittaker Conservative
John Whittingdale Conservative
Bill Wiggin Conservative
James Wild Conservative
Craig Williams Conservative
Gavin Williamson Conservative
Sammy Wilson DUP
Mike Wood Conservative
Jeremy Wright Conservative
Jacob Young Conservative
Nadhim Zahawi Conservative
