Farmers ride tractors into central London in major protest over trade deals

Get the free Morning Headlines e-mail for information from our reporters internationally

Sign as much as our free Morning Headlines e-mail

Tractor-riding farmers have descended on Westminster to protest towards buying and selling arrangments they declare will “decimate” British farming and jeapordise UK meals safety.

Campaign teams Save British Farming and Fairness for Farmers of Kent have assembled a “go-slow” convoy round parliament with organisers anticipating 50 to 100 tractors in addition to different farm automobiles.

Just a few hundred folks and 6 tractors sounding their horns had been seen by The Independent at College Green at round 6.30pm on Monday.

One tractor might be seen in entrance of Big Ben with a banner studying “Save UK food security” draped over its entrance, as farmers stoodby holding placards.

Another might be seen with a banner studying: “Stop substandard imports” as protesters held placards saying “Beep for freedom”.

Wiltshire beef and arable farmer Liz Webster mentioned: “In 2019, this Government was elected with a mandate to uphold our standards and deliver a ready-made deal with the EU which would see British agriculture boom. It is now entirely obvious that they have totally betrayed us all.

“Polling shows that the public back British farming and food and want to maintain our high food standards and support local producers.

“We need a radical change of policy and an urgent exit from these appalling trade deals which will decimate British food.”

Organisers have additionally criticised labelling that permits merchandise to bear a Union flag once they haven’t been grown or reared in Britain.

Ms Webster claimed the present scenario was “like going out with the English football team to the World Cup and saying ‘off you go, you’ve got chains on your legs and chains on your hands’. We are completely and utterly disadvantaged”.

Trade deals with New Zealand, Australia, and the CPTPP cope with 11 international locations together with Canada, Japan and Mexico, together with a scarcity of import checks, had been permitting decrease normal meals into the nation, she added.

Jeff Gibson, founding father of Kent Fairness for Farmers, mentioned: “It’s so important that our message about substandard imports, dishonest labelling and concerns for food security is heard.

“With an election looming, we want to ensure the next incoming government takes up our cause.”

Geoffrey Philpott, a cauliflower farmer in east Kent, who’s bringing three tractors to the rally, mentioned: “I hope to be farming for many years to come, but if things don’t change, I won’t be and I won’t be employing the 14 people who work for me.

“Then we will be reliant on foreign produce that will not have the high standard of UK production. Once that happens, we could be held to ransom over supply and pricing.”

It comes after comparable demonstrations in Kent noticed dozens of tractors clog roads across the port of Dover in a protest towards low cost imports in February.

French farmers additionally moved tractors to dam routes in Paris earlier this yr, urging the federal government to do extra to guard the nation’s agricultural sector from international competitors, rising prices and low pay.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs was approached for remark.