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7.59 pm
Mr. Paul Tyler (North Cornwall): This week, there has been a steady stream of job losses throughout rural Britain. In the past seven days, the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people have been destroyed and, tomorrow, many more will be laid off--I hope temporarily, but who knows? I wonder whether they will be encouraged by what they have heard today, especially on the evening news following Prime Minister's Question Time. I suspect that they will be further depressed.
Let me quote the statement issued by the St. Merryn Meat Co. yesterday as it announced that 149 staff would be laid off immediately and that a further 2,000 jobs were at risk. I should emphasise that the company is one of the biggest and best meat processors serving the whole of the south-west. It said:
That was reported in The Western Morning News this morning. That view will be echoed by many other people all over Britain tonight; indeed, I suspect that, in their
hearts, many hon. Members on both sides of the House will agree with it. It was reflected in the comments earlier of the hon. Member for East Lothian (Mr. Home Robertson).
There will be plenty of time for investigations--and blame, if need be--and, clearly, the research programme will need to be redoubled to answer the major scientific questions that remain. For example, first, what progress is being made to develop reliable testing of live cattle and why was feed not effectively tested for contamination? Secondly, is maternal transmission of bovine spongiform encephalopathy--from cow to calf--really impossible? Thirdly, what about lateral transmission in the herd? Are the French right to insist on total infected herd slaughter?
Fourthly, what is the hard evidence of cross-species transmission? In particular, what is the exact position with regard to sheep? Fifthly, what is the scientific analysis of the remarkable coincidence of the use of organophosphorous warble fly treatments--OPs--on cattle in the United Kingdom at the same time as BSE developed among our national herd? Could the known effect on the central nervous system make cows more susceptible to BSE? It may not have caused BSE, but it may have triggered it.
Sixthly, what lessons are to be learned from the overall pressure, to which the farming industry has been subjected, for ever-increasing intensive methods of husbandry? What are the Government doing--what will they do at the intergovernmental conference starting tomorrow--to reassess the risks of that central strategy of the common agricultural policy?
I hope that the Government also take note of the increasing support, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Southwark and Bermondsey (Mr. Hughes) has already drawn attention this week, for our 1993 proposal for an independent food commission, answerable separately to a Secretary of State, because that is clearly relevant. I note that consumers and farmers' leaders, such as Sir Simon Gourlay, now support us on that issue.
Over the years, other people and I have put those and many related questions to Ministers. It is not just the research budget that must be re-examined; training, too, will have to be upgraded if the industry is to reorientate its efforts. Rumours in the past few days of economies in ATB Landbase could not be worse timed.
Those issues, however, require longer-term re-examination. Tonight, we must face the immediate concerns. We must look forward rather than rake over the past. My Liberal Democrat colleagues and I believe that it is time for cross-party and cross-industry consultation and action, not least because that will be essential to impress the European Commission and the other14 European states that we are in this together.
As my right hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil(Mr. Ashdown) has repeatedly emphasised to the Prime Minister over the past seven days, we are ready to contribute constructively to the resolution of both the public health and the public confidence issues that were raised by the ministerial statements on BSE and beef.
As the hon. Members for Newark (Mr. Alexander) and for Ludlow (Mr. Gill) have said, the whole rural economy is in danger. There have been thousands of lay-offs already. Livestock farmers have been hit at their most vulnerable time of year. In the circumstances, many Liberal Democrats, in town and county halls throughout
the country, have a special responsibility for these matters, representing as we do, at all levels of government, the difficulties that rural areas have faced during the recession. It is critical that the painstaking, sustained efforts to bring back jobs to those areas are not put at risk. In the next few days, we must improve the local employment position rather than let it be further threatened by what has happened in the past week.
We believe, therefore, that investigations and recriminations can wait for another day. First, we must deal with the question of public confidence in British beef. To that end, we suggest that the Government must now announce--I do not think that it has happened yet this evening--an explicit, defined and measurable target. What is their objective? The explicit objective should be a "BSE-free" national herd--a return to the ambient and negligible levels before the mid-1980s--within an agreed timetable. It should be possible to aim for that. It cannot be left loose. Nothing less will satisfy public health concerns. Once that is established, the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee will have to be mandated to advise on the most comprehensive means of achieving that objective, but the political objective must be here first.
As we all recognise, the market is governed by sentiment as well as by science. We welcome the positive contributions from the industry led by the National Farmers Union, but with the food industry involved as well. Their recommendations on a selective cull of older cows were made at the same time as our suggestions to the Prime Minister on Monday. There is obviously wide consensus on their necessity. A clear, clean break is necessary if we are to regain confidence in beef.
Since Monday, a huge range of organisations has specifically endorsed the thrust of our proposals. I have already referred to the NFU and to the other farming unions, with which we have worked closely. I should also mention the Country Landowners Association and the Livestock Industry Support Trust. Even more significant, in terms of restoring market confidence, is the support of the Initiative on Food Marketing because, as the House knows, that body represents the leaders of the food manufacturing, catering and retail industries. In addition, representations from the Consumers Association and the National Consumer Council point in the same direction.
I understand, but I am disappointed, that, until this evening, the Labour party has not seen fit to support this vital core proposal. I hope that what we heard earlier means that the Labour party has changed its mind. Its previous position was sad--understandable but regrettable. The industry has been disappointed by that. I hope that we can now move on.
There are various options, and exemptions must be rigorously examined, but they must all have this common aim: the elimination from the human food chain of all beef or cow meat that could possibly have been infected by contaminated feed before the 1989 ban took full effect. The precise timing and monitoring of that process can be the subject of further discussion among us all. At the same time, as the Minister clearly recognises, there must be an immediate package of measures to stabilise the market and to avoid further haemorrhaging of jobs in rural areas.
We recommend that a statement on the use to which the Government intend to put the intervention scheme for finished cattle is made urgently. Clearly, the ban
announced this evening on 30-month-plus cattle, albeit temporary, increases the need for emergency action. As it is imperative to get the market moving again, it may be sensible to consider a top-up price scheme for the immediate future. That is something that the farming unions want the Government to deal with urgently.
It remains to be seen whether the aid scheme, again announced this evening, for young steers will be sufficient. I hope so, but I doubt it. Of course, stocks in intervention are low and only comparatively recent entries remain, so there is presumably no reason why purchases from abattoirs at an economic price should not be initiated as quickly as possible. The mechanism for ensuring that is surely financially viable, although clearly that will be a subject for negotiation with the European Commission. No doubt the Minister will brief us on his return from Brussels.
As for the culling and compensation scheme, clearly it will take time to work out, but we believe that it is vital to achieve a decision as fast as possible, commensurate with the essential consultation process that we would require. As carcases will have to be stripped out anyway, we would hope that payments by weight, rather than just by animal, will be possible, thereby ensuring that there can be appropriate compensation for quality stock.
Since European Union precedents--for example, swine fever in other member states--provided for up to 50 per cent. Brussels funding, surely it must be possible to obtain Commission endorsement very speedily for the proposals that we are suggesting. That could also ensure that other countries' BSE problems, to which reference has been made and which are becoming more and more apparent, will be treated without any discrimination. Our colleagues in the European Parliament pressed last night for assurances on those points, which I hope will prove to be correct. Incidentally, the collapse of beef sales, especially in France, but generally on the continent, may persuade other member states to join us more energetically to restore confidence throughout the Union.
In the longer term, we must reiterate our conviction that a substantial Government investment in a truly comprehensive UK-wide beef quality assurance scheme is now long overdue. A positive commitment could revive hope of returning public confidence generally, while forming the base for an effective marketing strategy abroad.
At the same time, we must carefully examine the case for the exemption from culling of herds in which, first, there have been no BSE cases whatever, as the hon. Member for Newark said, and, secondly, absolutely no bought-in cattle cake has been fed to them, which particularly applies to beef suckler herds. In such circumstances, surely the examination of MAFF records and farmers' audited accounts should be sufficient to provide proof. As long as the Government's compensation package is realistic, the motive to cheat will be minimal. Those herds will then provide the nucleus for the expanded beef quality assurance scheme that we require and a tightening up of any compensation arrangements.
We must all work together energetically for an early reversal of the EU ban. To rely on that happening--incidentally, while it is in place it is just being used as a good target for the Euro-sceptics--seems wildly over-optimistic, not least because its removal would not lead to an immediate resumption of any confidence or trade buying on the continent.
"We would like to express our total exasperation at the Government's inept handling of the BSE crisis, the Labour Party's political point scoring, with total disregard for the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of employees engaged in meat processing and associated food industries which they represent."
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