Labour will ban foie gras and hunting trophies imports if it takes power – iNews

Labour would ban imports of foie gras and hunting trophies very early after winning power, Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon has said.

Animal welfare campaigners were outraged earlier this month when Liz Truss junked a Conservative commitment to outlaw the controversial pt.

Nature and farming groups are also dismayed that the new administration has paused post-Brexit subsidies that incentivised agriculture without saying what will replace them.

Speaking to i at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Mr McMahon could hardly contain his glee at the furious backlash to a threatened rolling-back of environmental protections. He says the Tories are taking their rural heartlands for granted and will suffer the electoral consequences.

But he acknowledged that he will come under immediate pressure to make good on a host of long-standing promises cherished by Labour supporters to improve animal welfare, of which import bans on foie gras and hunting trophies are the most high-profile.

i revealed last year that Jacob Rees-Mogg, now the Business Secretary, was leading efforts to shelve the proposed ban on foie gras and last week it emerged that it had been scrapped entirely.

To produce foie gras which translates as fatty liver male ducks and geese are force fed grain and fat three or four times a day in a process known as gavage. The forced feeding causes the birds livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size.

Asked when a Labour government would bring in the bans, Mr McMahon said: There will be a lot to do in that first Queens Speech but there will be an expectation on Labour to set our stall on animal welfare very early that I am working hard to achieve.

He added that he was exploring whether the bans could be implemented without passing new laws to free up Commons time for other high-priority legislation, saying: Its about the art of the possible.

Mr McMahon said the bans are the easier stuff and added: The question for us and the current Government is how do you marry higher animal welfare standards with new international trade deals.

Ms Truss, when she was International Trade Secretary, won a Cabinet battle to force through a new trade deal with Australia despite worries it exposed British farmers to competition from producers with lower standards. Mr McMahon said the party was considering banning any future such deals and would double down on efforts to make the UK a world leader in ethical and green food.

He said he was astonished that the new Environment Secretary, Ranil Jayawardena, paused plans for post-Brexit farm subsidies, the Environment Land Management Scheme, without saying what comes next leaving the National Farmers Union and green groups united in fury.

I know Ranil reasonably well, Mr McMahon said. Im staggered that hes been missing in action. He should have been on the phone to the big groups like the NFU and Wildlife Trust. Its just a matter of respect. Even if the intention isnt to throw it all out but to pause, reflect and rebuild theres going to be a breakdown in trust.

The former Oldham council leader admitted his current job was not necessarily an obvious fit: The only greenery I saw as a kid were the weeds growing through the cracks in the pavement.

Unsurprisingly for a politician he showered praise on farmers and fishermen as grafters who are the best of British but also said he wants to make townies care more about the county by bringing it into urban areas.

Of course I am going to fight for the shires and coastal communities who have some of the most beautiful parts of the country on their doorstep, Mr McMahon said. But you cant just pitch up in somewhere like Oldham and say, Its your responsibility to tackle the climate change emergency, when whats their own environment like? Its grey and its depressing and theres no access to safe green spaces. Theres a huge opportunity there for Labour to fill in the gap.

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Labour will ban foie gras and hunting trophies imports if it takes power - iNews