After a difficult year for No. 10, what better way to end it than by unveiling a nice package of animal welfare measures? Ministers have made a series of announcements in dribs and drabs over the past 48 hours, setting out plans and consultations for 2026. These include ending the use of chicken cages, banning electric shock collars and, most controversially, banning trail hunting. In an animal-loving nation, much of this will be welcomed by the British public.
But, inevitably, these legislative changes are not as simple as they seem. Downing Street this afternoon faced questions over fears that British farmers are being undercut abroad. Ministers outlined plans to ban colony cages, which are used to hold dozens of chickens, and farrowing cages, which confine sows after they have given birth, as part of a flagship animal welfare strategy. Yet both practices remain legal in countries exporting meat to Britain, including Poland, Spain and Ireland.
Fears UK farmers are being undercut abroad
Groups like the National Farmers Union want the government’s animal welfare agenda to align with its trade strategy to ensure countries with lower standards cannot offer cheaper products. The Prime Minister’s spokesperson told reporters this afternoon: We must always ask ourselves whether foreign products have an unfair advantage and are prepared to use the full range of powers at our disposal. When asked if this could include the imposition of tariffs, he confirmed that: We are still keeping them under review.
Conventional battery cages for individual hens are already banned in the UK, with the RSPCA estimating that around 80 per cent of hens are free-range. It is true that, as the Prime Minister’s spokesperson said, some supermarkets have led the way on this, with Sainsburys among those who have already committed not to sell eggs produced from cage systems. But as farmers and rural groups are bruised by recent inheritance tax changes, opponents will seize the opportunity to develop the narrative of a Labor war on the countryside.
It is difficult to reconcile the public’s broad but superficial enthusiasm for high standards with the narrow but deep concerns of producers. There are echoes here of Boris Johnson, who promised a lot on animal welfare throughout 2020 and 2021, but ultimately sided with Liz Truss during discussions over the free trade deal with Australia.
It is perhaps unsurprising therefore that ministers, despite the enthusiastic rhetoric in Whitehall press releases, are very cautious about the timing of this package of measures. The most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation will be implemented by 2030, comfortably after the next election. This foreshadows the tensions and technical difficulties that ministers will have to overcome if they are to implement this much-vaunted revolution in the law.
