Blair summons farm leaders again

9 April 2001



Blair summons farm leaders again

By FWi staff

TONY BLAIR has summoned farmers leaders to Downing Street yet again for an update on the latest developments in the foot-and-mouth crisis.

National Farmers Union president Ben Gill and his counterparts from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland met the Prime Minister on Monday (9 April).

It is the latest in a series of visits to No. 10 which have been introduced since Tony Blair took charge of dealing with the crisis three weeks ago.

Mr Gill said: It is vitally important to keep the Prime Minister fully informed of the situation, and of the many problems the farming community is facing.

He added: The countryside is in crisis and we want to make sure this terrible disease remains at the top of the governments agenda.

As the number of confirmed cases rose to 1137, agriculture minister Nick Brown pledged to stamp heavily on new outbreaks of the disease.

“The most important response is to stamp on those new outbreaks at once, he told the Today programme on BBC Radio Four.

Mr Brown also said he believed that the number of foot-and-mouth cases over the next few days would indicate whether the epidemic had peaked.

I would expect by the end of this week for a clear trend to be discernable.

Mr Brown said that vaccinating livestock to control the disease could prolong the epidemic, which is about to enter its seventh week.

Farmers remain worried that 1.5m animals are due to be culled under a scheme for livestock facing welfare problems because of movement restrictions.

Junior Agriculture minister Elliot Morley chaired the first meeting of a special group set up to ensure that concerns are addressed on Friday (6 April).

He said: Defeating the disease is a top priority and together we must try to prevent potential problems and ensure best available standards of slaughter.”

The Foot-and-Mouth Welfare Consultative Group was attended by the RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and the Humane Slaughter Association.

Peter Stevenson, CIWF political and legal director, urged Mr Morley to ensure that measures taken to control the disease did not compromise welfare.

Over the last month we have been inundated with extremely worrying calls from … farmers about animals suffering during and awaiting slaughter.

This is extremely unacceptable at any time even during a national crisis.

Lib-Dem MP Paul Tyler (North Cornwall) said Mr Blairs promise to make all necessary resources available against the disease was apparently worthless.