Keir Starmer is pledging to again farmers by introducing strict “buy British” spending guidelines for the general public sector.
The Labour chief will promise to forestall British farms being undercut by poor high quality meals from abroad – after new evaluation discovered simply 1-in-5 of all pears, plums and raspberries within the UK market final 12 months have been 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 mom’s sickness.
He stated a Labour authorities would usher in a decade of nationwide renewal – serving to Britain to regain its misplaced 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 stated. “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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Tom Pullen/The Labour Party)
Mr Starmer stated Britain wanted to be “ambitious” about meals manufacturing – working with farmers to ship meals safety for the nation.
“We produce fantastic, high-quality food,” he informed 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 evaluation discovered England spends £2.2bn extra on imported fruit and greens at the moment in comparison with 2010 – however has misplaced greater than 15,000 hectares of fruit and veg planting space in the identical time interval. Meanwhile, the Government’s free fruit and vegetable programme for major faculties is estimated to make use of simply 13% of UK-sourced apples and 5% of UK-sourced pears, even when in season.
Labour’s plan would require half of all meals purchased in hospitals, prisons and faculties to be both domestically produced, or to have increased high quality and welfare requirements. The Government spends billions of kilos per 12 months on procuring meals for the general public sector.
Money spent on native, sustainable produce at school meals public procurement can present a return of as much as 4 occasions that for the native economic system. Around 3.3 million tonnes of UK meals go to waste on farms ever 12 months, sufficient to fill Wembley Stadium almost 4 occasions.
The sector itself is struggling to remain afloat, with 7,000 agricultural companies going bust since 2019.
Mr Starmer stated: “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 purchase, make, and promote extra in Britain. We’ll again Britain’s farmers and switch the web page on 13 years of Tory failure and neglect.”