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A Bristol MP has taken aim at Jacob Rees-Mogg by warning that pushing for cheaper food after Brexit could lead to an increase in modern slavery.
Mr Rees-Mogg, the North East Somerset MP and prominent Eurosceptic, has argued that leaving the European Union will allow the UK to scrap taxes on imported food and help the poorest to hang on to more of their money.
The chairman of the European Research Group, an influential pro-Brexit band of Tory MPs, told supporters earlier this year: “The first gain that we can have is by removing all the tariffs on those goods which the UK does not produce, thus giving a real-terms income boost, most of all to the poorest in our society.”
But Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, has warned that going down that road will lead to a “race to the bottom” and create slave-like conditions for those growing food across the world for UK shops.
In a speech in Parliament, Ms McCarthy said the tinned tomato industry in southern Italy – which produces 60 per cent of the tins sold in the UK – was controlled by “illegal gangmasters”, while “horrific examples of slavery” had been uncovered in the Thai seafood sector, which sells its produce on British supermarket shelves.
And the former shadow environment secretary predicted that vying to make food prices cheaper after Brexit will come at a “terrible price” and increase worker exploitation.
In a veiled dig at Mr Rees-Mogg, her constituency neighbour, the Labour MP said: “There are too many in this place who enthusiastically extol the opportunities of getting our hands on even cheaper food in the post-Brexit world.
“But that would come at a terrible price – a race to the bottom on food standards, food safety, animal welfare and environmental protections, and the continued exploitation of workers around the globe. Cheap food comes at a cost, and the cost is often met by the workers.”
Ms McCarthy said cheap food was “not the solution to food insecurity” with food bank use “driven by low pay, insecure work, benefit freezes and spiralling housing costs”.
She warned that the government’s own post-Brexit seasonal migrant worker programme, designed to fill agricultural labour gaps when free movement ends, could increase the risk of slave-type conditions in this country.
The vegan politician said tying labourers to a single employer during their stay would mean workers could be “unable to defend themselves if they are paid less than promised or if they are expected to work longer hours and in worse conditions than initially agreed”.
Bristol being a city “built on the back of the slave trade” had encouraged its modern leaders to be heavily involved in the fight against modern slavery, said Ms McCarthy.
“Bristol is now one of the leading fair trade cities in the world and at the forefront of efforts to stamp out modern slavery,” she told MPs on Thursday, October 18.
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“Our city is home to anti-slavery organisations such as Unseen and TISCreport that are, like Mayor Marvin Rees, committed to stamping out this horrendous crime, making the commitment to be the world’s first transparent city at a time when most did not even know what that meant.”
Ms McCarthy said slavery was “not just a terrible episode in history”, with the global slavery index estimating that more than 40 million people live as slaves today.
Victoria Atkins, the Home Office minister replying to the Bristol MP, said the prime minister was committed to the United Nations deadline of ending slavery by 2030.
“It is an ambitious target to set ourselves, but the prime minister has clearly identified a will within the international community to do that,” said the junior minister.
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