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 distance 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 therefore British farming – being absent from the overhaul of UK agriculture.

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 floodgates 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.

You may ask how our Watford MP, Dean Russell voted. He voted with the Government, of course, despite assuring previously the Government would not reduce farming standards.

John Maguire

Rickmansworth Road, Watford