Britain fights fair in food war

THE GOVERNMENT last night stood firm in the face of pressure to order a boycott of French food in the beef row. While the Prime Minister gave his backing to the "tough stance" taken on the issue by Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, he said Britain would not act illegally despite France's ban on imports of British beef.

Last night, however, Tony Blair faced pressure to take a firmer position after claims that the French were feeding livestock with raw sewage - a practice which, it is claimed, is common in many other European countries, including Germany, Belgium and Holland. Archie Norman, shadow minister for Europe, said the Government had been given a "golden and legitimate" opportunity to act, declaring: "We are not a nation of wimps and the public expect decisive action." He called for a precautionary ban on all French meat products.

The president of the NFU, Ben Gill, said it was "downright hypocritical" for the French authorities to ban British beef. Professor Hugh Pennington, who conducted the inquiry into the E.coli food poisoning outbreak, said: "This could be a re-run of the BSE problem, which started because we were recycling dead beef into beef.

"Clearly, the material that these animals [in France] have been getting is potentially full of nasty bugs. It is a classic way of spreading disease - by actually eating manure."

But the calls for action were rejected by Downing Street. "Tony Blair believes Britain has the strongest possible case and is confident the European Commission will support the British position in the future as it has in the past," a spokesman said. "Britain will continue to act in accordance with the law and urge others to do the same."

The issue is set to reach a climax tomorrow when scientists in Brussels meet to decide whether the French government has produced any new evidence to justify its refusal to lift the ban on UK beef imports.

The leader of Britain's Labour MEPs, Alan Donnelly, said he would refuse to attend this week's European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg unless EU experts reject French health scares over British beef.

"France is playing a very dangerous game," he said. "How can France be the site of the European parliament when it is not prepared to implement the most basic of EU laws: the free movement of goods?"

Mr Brown said: "The commission are doing the right thing. They ... are insisting the French comply with the rules." But despite a personal boycott of French food, he made it clear there would be no ban.

FRENCH SCORN BOYCOTT, PAGE 5

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