After a difficult year for No. 10, what better way to end it than by unveiling a nice package of feel-good animal welfare measures? Ministers have drip-fed a series of announcements over the past 48 hours, setting out plans and consultations for 2026. These include ending the use of hen cages, outlawing electric shock collars and, most controversially, banning trail hunting. In a nation of animal lovers, much of this will go down well with the British public.
Inevitably, though, such law changes are not as simple as they might seem. This afternoon, Downing Street has been facing questions about fears that British farmers are going to be undercut from abroad. Ministers have laid out plans to ban colony cages, which are used to hold dozens of chickens, and farrowing crates, which enclose sows after they have given birth, in a flagship animal welfare strategy. Yet both practices remain legal in countries exporting meat to Britain, including Poland, Spain and Ireland.
There are fears that British farmers are going to be undercut from abroad
Groups like the National Farmers’ Union want the government’s animal welfare agenda to align with its trade strategy to ensure that countries with lower standards cannot offer cheaper produce. The Prime Minister’s spokesman told journalists this afternoon: ‘We’ll always consider whether overseas products have an unfair advantage and are prepared to use the full range of powers at our disposal.’ Asked if that could include imposing tariffs, he confirmed that: ‘We always keep these under review.’
Conventional battery cages for individual hens are already banned in the UK, with the RSPCA estimating that some 80 per cent of hens are free range. It is true that – as the PM’s spokesman argued – some supermarkets have led the way on this, with Sainsbury’s among those already committed to not selling eggs produced from cage systems. But with both farmers and rural groups bruised from recent inheritance tax changes, opponents will seize on the chance to develop the narrative of a Labour ‘war on the countryside’.
It is a difficult task to reconcile the public’s broad but shallow enthusiasm for high standards with the narrow but deep concerns of producers. There are echoes here of Boris Johnson, who promised much on animal welfare throughout 2020 and 2021 – but eventually came down on the side of Liz Truss during the discussions on the Australia free trade deal.
It is perhaps no surprise then that ministers are – for all the excited talk of Whitehall press releases – very cautious when it comes to the timeline for this package of measures. ‘The most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation’ will be implemented by 2030 – comfortably after the next election. That hints at the tensions and technical difficulties which ministers will have to surmount if they are to enact this much-vaunted revolution into law.
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