MPs to step up pork labelling fight

But they have stopped short of proposing UK standards as a requirement for imports, like farmers want and it looks unlikely the main parties will press for it in the next General Election

Peter Ainsworth, the Surrey MP who was chief Tory spokesman on Defra affairs until David Cameron replaced him with Nick Herbert last year, is the author of an "early day motion".

It calls for negotiations on labelling to go further than insistence on honesty about country of origin, with the aim of "mandatory labelling as to farming method". And it demands a public procurement policy based on RSPCA Freedom Food standards.

Mr Ainsworth hosted an information meeting for sympathetic MPs at the House of Commons on Wednesday this week.

Tim Farron, Lakeland MP and Defra affairs specialist for the Lib Dems, is among more than 50 signatories so far, and so are Yorkshire MPs Colin Burgon (Lab, Elmet) and Ann McIntosh (Con, Vale of York).

All the main parties look like going into the General Election promising better labelling and a stricter public procurement policy. But there is not much prospect of any law enforcing higher welfare standards for all pork.

The EC view is that it was the UK's choice to go further than the common agreements on welfare and our rules cannot be made a condition of trade.

Tracy Worcester, wife of the Marquis of Worcester, told MPs that simply labelling meat with its country of origin was not enough. Most consumers did not realise, she said, that pigs are commonly reared without straw in much of Europe.

n The Yorkshire Post Clearly British campaign is fighting for better labelling. A legal loophole means the food can be labelled as produced in Britain even if it is meat from abroad.