Rishi Sunak has been slammed for telling voters to ‘buy British’ as the perils of Brexit continue to hit households across the country.
Just days after the Prime Minister was ridiculed after claiming he went without lots of things as a kid – including Sky TV – Brits have shared fresh fury after reading his blunt remark on X, formerly Twitter.
Mr Sunak wrote, “We shouldn’t be reliant on foreign food. Buy British” on his official account, and the replies are swamped with people explaining exactly why it’s a struggle to buy local in Britain.
Fiercely shutting down the PM’s plea, one woman wrote: “Your govt have ensured British farming is in crisis! You’ve allowed foreign imports to crush British food, removed our Labour supply and subsidies, put trade barriers in the way and paid us to plant flowers!”
Meanwhile, another bluntly quipped: “People shouldn’t be reliant on foodbanks, but 14 years of the bloody tories have made that all possible.” A third simply asked: “Why did you make it harder for farmers to supply it then, genius?”
A report last year by the London School of Economics (LSE) revealed that British households have paid a staggering £7bn since Brexit to cover the extra cost of trade barriers on food imports from the EU. The researchers reported that trade barriers are consistently hampering imports, hiking up bills by an average £250 during the cost of living crisis.
Meanwhile, a 2023 survey by Farmer’s Weekly caught the mood of British farmers seven years on from Brexit. It found that some 70% of the farmers who grow cereals said leaving the EU had been negative for their businesses, while 76% of oilseed rape growers felt that way. Similarly, 68% of farmers with beef cattle, dairy cows or sheep had a negative perception. And the two sectors that were even more negative were those growing vegetables (81%) and those keeping pigs (79%).
Food critic Jay Rayner didn’t hold back in his response to Rishi’s social media message either. Quoting the post, he said: “Where to bloody start? There isn’t enough British food to buy because the crass, malformed, malignant clown-show of Brexit that you promoted, has undermined food production, courtesy of ill-thought out subsidies. Plus, brexit-driven border controls have stymied imports.”
In response, someone joked: “Love to start the day with a cup of British tea or coffee. Little squeeze of British lemon juice and a drizzle of British olive oil over my lunch before flavouring my dinner with all those British spices…”
Another said: “Someone should perhaps tell Sunak that the UK hasn’t been able to reliably sustain its population without food imports since roughly the early 19th century. This is literally what the debates over the corn laws were about.”
The Sunday Mirror’s Deputy Political Editor Mikey Smith also wrote: “This is a very odd thing to tweet during an election campaign.”
Earlier this year, food suppliers sounded the alarm over new post-Brexit border checks – warning they will lead to even higher food prices and less choice for Brit shoppers.
Food suppliers wanred the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) will drive food prices up and leave businesses having to deal with “impractical” demands. Under the new scheme, animal and plant products from the EU deemed “medium-risk” or higher will face physical, documentary and identity checks at the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel.