I will make some progress, if I may. The deal as a whole will deliver one 200th of the benefits of the EU over the next 15 years, and is worth only 0.01% of GDP. That causes two problems for farming. The first is the fact that Australian livestock farms will mean that farmers in the UK who operate on a much smaller scale will not be able to compete on price. On the price issue, in the UK we pride ourselves on high animal welfare standards. The same cannot be said of the Australians. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals chief executive Chris Sherwood warned that it is legal in Australia to mutilate the rear end of sheep, while chicken can be washed with chlorine and almost half of cattle are given growth hormones. That is a shocking record of animal welfare.
Back British Farming Day
Proceeding contribution from
John Nicolson
(Scottish National Party)
in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 15 September 2021.
It occurred during Debate on Back British Farming Day.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
700 c343WH 
Session
2021-22
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2023-02-07 15:22:11 +0000
URI
http://hansard.intranet.data.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-09-15/21091518000123
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