Struggling to buy British

Always eager to ingratiate themselves with farmers and the rural lobby, the Conservatives said several times that they wanted to set an example in the local sourcing of food and promised that, in government, they would help Whitehall departments to give farmers a boost by buying British food – not for crude reasons of protectionism but because British animals were reared to far higher welfare standards than cheap foreign imports.

It seems, however, that this admirable ambition has been much easier to explain than to achieve.

For one important proviso in the commitment, at a time when the priority was to reduce the public-sector deficit, was that there should be no overall increase in costs.

And, as Downing Street has now revealed, the target for all departments to begin sourcing their food according to higher standards of animal welfare has been missed because of the difficulties in changing contracts without incurring penalty clauses. A further update, it says weakly, will be given in four months’ time.

This is not good enough. Britain’s farmers and food producers have been fobbed off for too long by politicians who paid lip service to their interests while failing to back up their words with actions.

Of course, it was never going to be easy for the Government to overhaul its predecessor’s long-established procurement policy while simultaneously holding down costs.

After all, British livestock farmers’ welfare standards, vastly superior to many European competitors, do not come cheap. But, then again, nor should politicians’ promises.