The British economy has lost out – and questionable meat and cheese ban is a reminder of why
Unwary travellers returning from the EU risk having their sandwiches and local delicacies, such as cheese, confiscated as they enter the UK.
The luggage in which they are carrying their goodies may also be seized and destroyed – and if Border Force catch them trying to smuggle meat or dairy products without a declaration, they could face criminal charges.
The new jeopardy has come about because last weekend, the government quietly “extended” its “ban on personal meat imports to protect farmers from foot and mouth”.
This may or may not be bureaucratic over-reaction.
It’s certainly just another of the barriers EU and UK authorities are busily throwing up between each other and their citizens – at a time when political leaders keep saying the two sides should be drawing together in the face of Donald Trump’s attacks on European trade and security.
Keir Starmer’s been embarking on a reset with European leaders. Pic: Reuters
The ban on bringing back “cattle, sheep, goat, and pig meat, as well as dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use” is meant “to protect the health of British livestock, the security of farmers, and the UK’s food security.”
There are bitter memories of previous outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in this country, in 1967 and 2001.
In 2001, there were more than 2,000 confirmed cases of infection resulting in six million sheep and cattle being destroyed. Footpaths were closed across the nation and the general election had to be delayed.
In the EU this year, there have been five cases confirmed in Slovakia and four in Hungary. There was a single outbreak in Germany in January, though Defra, the UK agriculture department, says that’s “no longer significant”.
The UK imposed bans on personal meat and dairy imports from those countries, and Austria, earlier this year.
Authorities carry disinfectant near a farm in Dunakiliti, Hungary. Pic: Reuters
Better safe than sorry?
None of the cases of infection are in the three most popular countries for UK visitors – Spain, France, and Italy – now joining the ban. Places from which travellers are most likely to bring back a bit of cheese, salami, or chorizo.
Could the government be putting on a show to farmers that it’s on their side at the price of the public’s inconvenience, when its own measures on inheritance tax and failure to match lost EU subsidies are really doing the farming community harm?
Many will say it’s better to be safe than sorry, but the question remains whether the ban is proportionate or even well targeted on likely sources of infection.
Read more: The products you can’t bring into Britain from the EU
No more gourmet chorizo brought back from Spain for you. File pic: iStock
A ‘Brexit benefit’? Don’t be fooled
The EU has already introduced emergency measures to contain the disease where it has been found. Several thousand cattle in Hungary and Slovenia have been vaccinated or destroyed.
The UK’s ability to impose the ban is not “a benefit of Brexit”. Member nations including the UK were perfectly able to ban the movement of animals and animal products during the “mad cow disease” outbreak in the 1990s, much to the annoyance of the British government of the day.
Since leaving the EU, England, Scotland and Wales are no longer under EU veterinary regulation.
Northern Ireland still is because of its open border with the Republic. The latest ban does not cover people coming into Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man.
Rather than introducing further red tape of its own, the British government is supposed to be seeking closer “alignment” with the EU on animal and vegetable trade – SPS or “sanitary and phytosanitary” measures, in the jargon.
A ban on cheese? That’s anything but cracking. Pic: iStock
UK can’t shake ties to EU
The reasons for this are obvious and potentially make or break for food producers in this country.
The EU is the recipient of 67% of UK agri-food exports, even though this has declined by more than 5% since Brexit.
The introduction of full, cumbersome, SPS checks has been delayed five times but are due to come in this October. The government estimates the cost to the industry will be £330m, food producers say it will be more like £2bn.
With Brexit, the UK became a “third country” to the EU, just like the US or China or any other nation. The UK’s ties to the European bloc, however, are much greater.
Half of the UK’s imports come from the EU and 41% of its exports go there. The US is the UK’s single largest national trading partner, but still only accounts for around 17% of trade, in or out.
The difference in the statistics for travellers are even starker – 77% of trips abroad from the UK, for business, leisure or personal reasons, are to EU countries. That is 66.7 million visits a year, compared to 4.5 million or 5% to the US.
And that was in 2023, before Donald Trump and JD Vance’s hostile words and actions put foreign visitors off.
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Trump: ‘Europe is free-loading’
More bureaucratic botheration
Meanwhile, the UK and the EU are making travel between them more bothersome for their citizens and businesses.
This October, the EU’s much-delayed EES or Entry Exit System is due to come into force. Every foreigner will be required to provide biometric information – including fingerprints and scans – every time they enter or leave the Schengen area.
From October next year, visitors from countries including the UK will have to be authorised in advance by ETIAS, the European Travel and Authorisation System. Applications will cost seven euros and will be valid for three years.
Since the beginning of this month, European visitors to the UK have been subject to similar reciprocal measures. They must apply for an ETA, an Electronic Travel Authorisation. This lasts for two years or until a passport expires and costs £16.
The days of freedom of movement for people, goods, and services between the UK and its neighbours are long gone.
The British economy has lost out and British citizens and businesses suffer from greater bureaucratic botheration.
Nor has immigration into the UK gone down since leaving the EU. The numbers have actually gone up, with people from Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, more than compensating for EU citizens who used to come and go.
Editor’s note: Hands off my focaccia sandwiches with prosciutto! Pic: iStock
Will European reset pay off?
The government is talking loudly about the possible benefits of a trade “deal” with Trump’s America.
Meanwhile, minister Nick Thomas Symonds and the civil servant Mike Ellam are engaged in low-profile negotiations with Europe – which could be of far greater economic and social significance.
The public will have to wait to see what progress is being made at least until the first-ever EU-UK summit, due to take place on 19 May this year.
Hard-pressed British food producers and travellers – not to mention young people shut out of educational opportunities in Europe – can only hope that Sir Keir Starmer considers their interests as positively as he does sucking up to the Trump administration.
UK
Starmer’s plan to recognise Palestinian state labelled ‘appeasement towards jihadist terrorists’ by Netanyahu
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to recognise Palestine as a state has been attacked as “appeasement towards jihadist terrorists” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prime minister said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state by September unless Israel takes “substantive steps” to end the situation in Gaza, Israel agrees to a ceasefire, commits to a long-term sustainable peace, allows the UN to restart aid supplies and does not annexe the West Bank.
About 250 MPs from all parties – half of them Labour – had signed a letter last week calling for Sir Keir to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.
Politics latest: PM’s Palestine plan labelled ‘absurd’
Sir Keir said that by giving Israel a deadline of 9 September UN meeting, he hoped this would play a part “in changing the conditions on the ground, and making sure aid gets into making sure that there is hope of a two-state solution for the future”.
But Mr Netanyahu condemned the plan, saying Sir Keir “rewards Hamas’s monstrous terrorism and punishes its victims”.
“A jihadist state on Israel’s border today will threaten Britain tomorrow,” he wrote on X.
“Appeasement towards jihadist terrorists always fails. It will fail you too. It will not happen.”
The Israelis also accused Sir Keir of pandering to his MPs and France, after Emmanuel Macron committed to recognising a Palestinian state last week, and harming efforts to release Israeli hostages.
Benjamin Netanyahu was effusive in his condemnation
Lib Dems and Greens: ‘Bargaining chip’
Sir Keir also faced accusations of using Palestinian state recognition as a “bargaining chip” by both the Lib Dems and the Green Party.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said a Palestinian state should have been recognised “months ago” and “far greater action” is needed to stop the humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Jordanian military personnel prepare planes to deliver airdrops in Gaza on Monday
Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Ellie Chowns, who wants immediate state recognition, said it was a “cynical political gesture”.
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s former SNP first minister, who revealed a family member was killed in Gaza days ago, told Sky News statehood “shouldn’t be dependent” upon the conditions Sir Keir has set for Israel, but is the “inalienable right” of the Palestinian people.
The British Palestinian Committee, representing Palestinian interests in the UK, described conditions as “absurd and performative”.
UK Jewish groups seek clarity
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK’s largest Jewish organisation, said it was “seeking urgent clarification” that the UK will not recognise Palestine as a state if Israeli hostages remain in Hamas captivity, or if Hamas keeps rejecting a ceasefire deal.
The Labour Friends of Israel group said it has “shared goals” with the government but state recognition “will be a merely symbolic act unless the UK uses its influence to establish the principles of a meaningful pathway to a Palestinian state”.
Read more:
What does recognising a Palestinian state mean?
Children ‘eating out of piles of garbage’ as time runs out for Gaza
Sarah Champion, Labour MP and chair of the international development committee, who started the MP letter calling for state recognition, said she was “delighted and relieved”.
However, she added: “I’m troubled our recognition appears conditional on Israel’s actions.”
When Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the plan at a UN meeting, he received applause.
Not many other Labour MPs commented.
Tories accuse Starmer of appeasing MPs
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Sir Keir of being more focused on a “political problem for the Labour Party” than other issues facing the UK.
“Recognising a Palestinian state won’t bring the hostages home, won’t end the war and won’t get aid into Gaza,” she posted on X.
“This is political posturing at its very worst.”
Tory shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said the announcement was “to appease his backbenchers” as “he knows that promises to recognise Palestine will not secure lasting peace”.
Aid trucks were allowed into Gaza on Tuesday. Pic: Reuters
Trump did not discuss statehood with Starmer
Donald Trump said he and Sir Keir “never did discuss” the PM’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state during their meetings in Scotland the day before.
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Trump responds to Sky question on Israel
However, Tammy Bruce, spokeswoman for the US state department, said Sir Keir’s plan is a “slap in the face for the victims of October 7”, which “rewards Hamas”, the Telegraph reported.
At St Marie’s Catholic Church in Southport, small photos of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar stood on the altar. Candles burned next to them.
During lunchtime mass, Father John Heneghan, who gave Alice her first communion and then conducted her funeral, spoke quietly of the “three little angels” lost a year ago.
(L-R) Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Bebe King.
Pic: Merseyside Police
A town and a community, in small and quiet ways, remembered a horror that still haunts them.
St Marie’s was one of the locations chosen for the people of Southport to come and reflect, pray or light a candle in memory of the awful events of 29 July last year.
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Southport survivor ‘thought she was going to die’
Throughout the day, a handful of people have paused for a moment at community centres, libraries and churches.
The town had opted for very little outward show of commemoration.
After discussions, including with the families of the victims, they asked for people to instead donate to local causes, including the charities set up by those families themselves – Elsie’s Story, Bebe’s Hive and Alice’s WonderDance.
They requested no flowers at the scene of the attack or the schools the girls attended.
“Let us continue to honour the lives of Alice, Bebe and Elsie,” the leader and chair of Sefton Council said in a letter to the community, “not only through remembrance but by holding onto the values they embodied – joy, creativity, kindness, and love.”
Flowers left at Town Hall Gardens in Southport, near where three children were fatally stabbed a year ago. Pic: PA
Pic PA
Read more from Sky News:
Victim reveals how she survived attack
Analysis: Southport ‘cover-up’ confusion
Missed chances to stop Rudakubana
At 3pm, people stopped to observe the three-minute silence in the town centre.
A few wiped away tears before spontaneous applause broke out.
In Southport’s Town Hall Gardens, which was the focal point of the public mourning a year ago, people again came to place flowers, toys and cards in memory of the victims.
Stones bearing messages of support to the families were also placed there.
“God bless to you three little angels,” read one card.
Resident doctors are not ruling out further strike action as their current walkout comes to an end, with some demands still unmet.
The latest strike began on Friday amid an ongoing row over pay and is expected to last until 7am on Wednesday.
Hospital leaders have urged the British Medical Association (BMA) and the government to end the strikes, which caused widespread disruptions throughout the NHS in England.
The BMA’s Resident Doctors Committee (RDC) says it is ready for further talks with the government but has yet to be contacted by Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
Dozens of resident doctors, previously called junior doctors, took part in a picket line on Tuesday at King George Hospital in Ilford, a facility serving the constituents of the health secretary.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting visits the NHS National Operations Centre in London to see the response to the industrial action. Pic: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire
“Unfortunately, we haven’t heard from him yet. That doesn’t mean that he’s not going to call us tomorrow – our door is always open,” said Dr Melissa Ryan, who co-chairs the committee alongside Dr Ross Nieuwoudt.
Dr Nieuwoudt said: “There does not need to be a single other day of industrial action at all.
“All Wes Streeting needs to do is come to us now and talk to us now, because that’s what doctors want and that’s what patients need.”
The union has also launched a related dispute with the government over limited training spots, as this year, over 30,000 resident doctors competed for only 10,000 specialty places.
Read more:
Conservatives vow to ban doctor strikes
Resident doctors’ strike explained
A recent poll of 4,400 doctors found that 52% finishing their second training year lack confirmed employment for August.
Dr Layla McCay, director of policy at NHS Confederation, said: “Resident doctors have recently had a very substantial increase in their pay and the government has been pretty clear that at the moment, there isn’t more money to be negotiated.”
Dr McCay said the government “is keen” to discuss non-pay issues, such as workforce conditions.
NHS resident doctors outside St Thomas’ Hospital. Pic: PA.
“I think that the hope of all healthcare leaders is that the BMA will get around the table with the government and figure out a solution to this, because what absolutely nobody wants to see is any further cases of industrial action after this one.”
Streeting has said the union can’t “hold the country to ransom” following a 28.9% pay increase over the past three years, the highest in the public sector.
The BMA has said pay for resident doctors has declined by a fifth since 2008, once inflation is taken into account, despite this uplift.
Meanwhile, health workers represented by the GMB and Unite unions have also turned down a government offer, raising the likelihood of additional industrial action within the NHS.
Nurses are also expected to turn down the pay deal later this week.
The Royal College of Nursing, which represents hundreds of thousands of nurses across the NHS in England, is balloting its members on the 3.6% pay award offered for 2025/26 in England.
A recent YouGov poll found that public opinion in Britain is divided over nurses striking for better pay. Among 4,300 adults surveyed, 19% “strongly support” nurse strikes, while 28% offer some support. In contrast, 23% “strongly oppose” the strikes, and 20% “somewhat oppose” them.
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