Food price lies, says UKIP

Louise Bours, North West UKIP MEP

Propaganda about food prices going up if Britain chose to leave the European Union has moved beyond scaremongering to “utter lies”, says local UKIP MEP Louise Bours.

Campaigners hoping to convince British voters to stay in the EU have sent out hundreds of thousands leaflets across the country warning that the nation’s annual grocery bill would rise by £11 billion if we left.

“This is absolute rubbish,” said Ms Bours, UKIP Health spokesman.

“The truth is that the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy – which is designed to prop up inefficient farmers on the continent – is the very reason why bills remain high in the UK.

“Research from both the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Business for Britain group have proved that to be the case.

“In the UK, entirely because of EU policies, beef costs 35% more, turkey 22%, lamb 11%, wheat 15%, chicken 22%, and potatoes 10% - each one of those costs hitting every single family in Britain.

“Worse still, these costs hit the poorest the hardest as households with less income spend a higher proportion of their earnings on filling the shopping trolley.

“A combination of quotas, taxes and subsidies all push up the price we pay for food. For instance, New Zealand lamb costs 18% more in the UK than it does in the USA, all because of EU policies.

“Over the last ten years a typical low income family in the UK has spent 2% of their annual expenditure supporting the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy to support farmers in France, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere.

“On average a family in the UK would save £45 a month on their food bill if not for the wasteful EU policies that affect our food prices.

“To pretend the opposite isn’t just desperate by the pro-EU campaigners, and it has moved way beyond scaremongering. They are utter lies.

“I find it disgraceful that ‘stay’ opportunists would try to scare low income families into remaining in the EU, where their food bills would be kept artificially and damagingly high.”