NFU slams Boris Johnson’s ‘disgraceful’ response to pig crisis

The NFU has criticised Boris Johnson’s “disgraceful” response to the pig sector crisis and said mass culling on farms is a disaster that sends the message that the government thinks British farmers do not matter.

The prime minister was ridiculed after an interview with Andrew Marr in which he dismissed farmers’ calls for help in the wake of slaughterhouse slowdowns, and said the pigs were going to die anyway.

See also: Video: Labour shortage is ‘final straw’ for pig farmer

The National Pig Association (NPA) said there were about 120,000 pigs backed up on farms, which should have already been processed, and piglets were now being killed.

Speaking at the Farmers Weekly Awards night in London on Thursday 7 October, NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts criticised Mr Johnson’s handling of the crisis.

“Up and down the country we have pig farmers who, at the moment, are really, really struggling,” Mr Roberts said.

“I don’t think I was the only one – indeed I am sure I speak for everyone in the room – when I think back on what the PM said on Sunday morning. The lack of empathy, the joke about bacon – it was disgraceful.

“This is the same PM who 12 months ago said to Minette [Batters – NFU president], he would rather die in a ditch than hurt farmers. He needs reminding about that.”

Work visas

The NPA and NFU want work visas extended to get more butchers into the country and slaughterhouses running at full capacity again.

But the government has told the meat sector to pay domestic staff more and provide better training and career development.

NFU president Minette Batters told a BBC Question Time audience in Aldershot on Thursday 7 October that the mass culling of pigs was a “human disaster” for vets and pig farmers, who were “absolutely distraught”.

“It’s been heartbreaking to witness.”@minette_batters says the mass culling of pigs is hugely damaging to farmers’ livelihoods, and will add to the UKs supply chain crisis. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/WoP7EYslIP

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) October 7, 2021

“At the moment it feels as if farmers don’t matter and we don’t want to see British food produced in this country, and that has to change,” she said.

“The more we talk about low-skilled, unskilled, low-paid – that is not the case. Butchers are on £15/hour, for the nurses in here, your staff nurse is on £13/hour.

“Here we are, the first country in the world facing a cull of healthy livestock, potentially up to 120,000 pigs.

“They will have to be destroyed on farm either using a bolt gun or lethal injection, which is a massive issue for the vets in this country who are there to save lives, not to shoot or destroy healthy livestock,” Mrs Batters said.