Food and Drink Federation tables Brexit options for MPs
The chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), Ian Wright, has written to all MPs ahead of tonight’s indicative votes aimed at finding a way past the House of Commons’ impasse over now – or indeed if – to leave the European Union.
His communication includes a table (see above) showing politicians the different Brexit options and their consequences for UK food and drink.
Wright tells MPs: “Every constituency in the country has a substantial number of voters employed in the food and drink sector. It is an industry at the bedrock of our national life. Food is a matter of national security. Government’s first duty is to feed the country – if you can’t feed the country you don’t have a country.
Profound consequences
“The choices you make in tonight’s indicative votes and in the meaningful vote whenever it comes will have profound consequences for our food supply. Some of the options being debated will constrain the vast array of choice to which UK shoppers - every one of your constituents - have become accustomed to over the last four decades.
“I am quite sure you will not want to explain to them in years to come why you have opted to restrict the supply of their favourite food - or to increase its price. Yet those could easily be the consequences of making the wrong choices today.
“The table sets out the different options and their consequences for UK food and drink.
“All I ask is that you take a look and then take account of those impacts when you vote this evening and in the days to come.”
