Andy Burnham’s attempt to rebuild Labour’s relationship with Britain’s farming industry has suffered an awkward early setback after his new farming minister reportedly fainted during a visit to a beef processing facility.
Stephen Morgan, the Labour MP for Portsmouth South and newly appointed junior farming minister, was touring farms and food suppliers in the Lake District when he was shown a refrigerated storage area containing large quantities of raw beef.
According to a farmer quoted by The Sun, Morgan had been shown “large chunks of beef” and steaks before telling those around him He said something like, ‘I don’t feel too well — I need a moment’.
“It’s not a great look for the farming minister to faint at the sight of meat.”
The episode is an unfortunate image for a Government attempting to persuade farmers that it understands the realities of food production. Morgan subsequently attributed his condition to the abrupt temperature change between the summer heat and the refrigerated facility.
“Hats off to the brilliant people working in these conditions and temperatures to keep the nation fed,” he said.
The incident comes at a politically sensitive moment for Burnham’s government. Ministers have been scrambling to support farmers after an exceptionally dry summer, with almost three-quarters of England and the whole of Wales affected by drought.
Last week Burnham announced a £65mn support package covering crop irrigation, livestock feed, environmental schemes and investment in on-farm water storage.
The Prime Minister has acknowledged that Labour has “a long way to go to build back trust” with farmers, following years of tension over agricultural policy and inheritance tax.
For a Government seeking to repair relations with a sector already confronting drought, rising costs and falling yields, the sight of its farming minister apparently coming over faint in front of a freezer full of beef was hardly ideal.
Morgan’s first tour of the agricultural sector has therefore delivered an unusually literal reminder of the distance between Westminster and the realities of British farming.
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