NFU tells Labour – Take the politics out of TB

The NFU has called on the Labour party to take the politics out of the debate around culling badgers to combat bovine TB.

Speaking at an NFU and Food and Drink Federation fringe event at the Labour party conference in Liverpool on Monday (26 September), union president Peter Kendall said the party needed to stop stirring public anxiety until further cull trials had been carried out.

Criticising shadow DEFRA minister Mary Creagh for launching a campaign to generate anti-cull support while the government was consulting on whether to carry out pilot badger culls in TB hotspots, Mr Kendall said politics had become too involved in the debate.

 “We are just dipping our toe in the water with this,” he told Mrs Creagh in front of farming and food industry delegates.

“This is not about a free for all for farmers to do as they like.

“Caroline Spelman has consulted on the practicalities of a cull. If she does give the go ahead there will be two pilots that are analysed for their efficacy.

“The science tells us at the very worst we will get a 16% reduction. But elsewhere in similar trials in Ireland there has been a 30% reduction.”

Denying that he was having a stand-off with the Labour party, Mr Kendall said a pilot cull was an option to try something new.

“Rather than stir up a feeling it won’t work, how about for the next year we give this one chance to see if it works?”

“Then after that you can come back and challenge us,” he told Mrs Creagh. “Let’s not stir up the public about something that is so vital for the farming industry.”

His comments came after Mrs Creagh said she did not support plans to cull badgers as it had not been scientifically proven.

“The science says a cull in the proposed ten pilot areas would only reduce TB by 2.5%,” she said. “That’s not a silver bullet.

“We have looked at the science and this solution isn’t good enough.”

Mrs Creagh admitted her party would be forced to allow a cull to continue if a culling programme was in place when Labour came into power again, but she said her best solution would be to introduce a cordon sanitaire.

“We would vaccinate clean cattle and use natural borders such as peninsulas and the ocean to squeeze and contain the disease,” she added.

But her comments were not welcomed by West Country livestock farmer Anthony Rew, who said she needed to do more to address the issue.

“TB is a disease that transcends party politics,” he told the shadow minister.

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