09 December 2023 , 18:00
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Keir Starmer is pledging to back farmers by introducing strict “buy British” spending rules for the public sector.
The Labour leader will promise to prevent British farms being undercut by poor quality food from overseas - after new analysis found just 1-in-5 of all pears, plums and raspberries in the UK market last year were produced in Britain. And in an interview with ITV ’s Love Your Weekend programme to be broadcast on Sunday morning, Mr Starmer spoke movingly to host Alan Titchmarsh about his upbringing and his late mother’s illness.
He said a Labour government would usher in a decade of national renewal - helping Britain to regain its lost its sense of hope and optimism.
“For my mum and dad, this sense that things would be better for the next generation was an incredible source of comfort and pride because they had ups and downs,” he said. “My mum was very, very ill for most of her life, in and out of high dependency units, they didn't have a huge amount of money, so they had the ups and downs that many, many families go through.
“But towards the end of her life the comfort they took from the fact that things we're going to get better for their children and their children’s children, that allowed them to reflect and think ‘well my life was worth living’. And we’ve lost that somehow. And I think this decade of national renewal will restore that sense, collective sense if you like, that we can improve where we are and again get back to that sense of hope and optimism that things will actually get better and that the next generation has even better opportunities that we have.”
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The Labour leader said Britain needed to be "ambitious" about food production (Tom Pullen/The Labour Party)Mr Starmer said Britain needed to be “ambitious” about food production - working with farmers to deliver food security for the country.
“We produce fantastic, high-quality food,” he told the green-fingered TV host. “Talk to any farmer anywhere in the country and the pride that comes with high standards in food is enormous.”
He added: “The government can pull levers with big procurements for food into the NHS and other places. We should take pride in that, it’s what drives our countryside.”
Labour’s analysis found England spends £2.2bn more on imported fruit and vegetables today compared to 2010 - but has lost more than 15,000 hectares of fruit and veg planting area in the same time period. Meanwhile, the Government’s free fruit and vegetable programme for primary schools is estimated to use just 13% of UK-sourced apples and 5% of UK-sourced pears, even when in season.
Labour’s plan would require half of all food bought in hospitals, prisons and schools to be either locally produced, or to have higher quality and welfare standards. The Government spends billions of pounds per year on procuring food for the public sector.
Money spent on local, sustainable produce in school food public procurement can provide a return of up to four times that for the local economy. Around 3.3 million tonnes of UK food go to waste on farms ever year, enough to fill Wembley Stadium nearly 4 times.
The sector itself is struggling to stay afloat, with 7,000 agricultural businesses going bust since 2019.
Mr Starmer said: "British farmers produce fantastic food and deliver security for our country. But they are being let down after thirteen years of Conservative failure, and consumers are faced with empty shelves. There’s no metaphor of government-made damage more apt than good food left rotting in British fields during a cost-of-living crisis.
“Labour will not tolerate that. We will harness the power of public procurement to buy British, and buy sustainable, protecting our high food standards. We'll make sure that hospitals and other public bodies provide food that is high-quality and sourced in Britain when they can, while also supporting producers and boosting economic growth.
"My Labour Government will buy, make, and sell more in Britain. We’ll back Britain’s farmers and turn the page on 13 years of Tory failure and neglect."
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