Victoria Atkins, the shadow environment secretary, has cut straight to the point, arguing that the best thing Labour could do for the resilience of Britain’s food supply chains is to boost domestic production, rather than talk endlessly about the weather.
She has pointed to what she calls the “vindictive” family farm and family business taxes, the jobs tax, the sudden closure of farming payment schemes, an obsession with covering prime agricultural land in solar panels, and ever-expanding red tape, all of which, she argues, have combined to drive record farm closures over the past year.
Her intervention comes as the National Audit Office has warned, in stark terms, that Britain must prepare for the growing threat of food shortages. The spending watchdog has said that disruption to the UK’s food system is becoming more likely, and potentially more severe, pointing to extreme weather, cyberattacks, and disease outbreaks as the main risks. It has called on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to work urgently with businesses and households on emergency plans, and to review the legal powers that could be used if the country is hit by serious disruption.
Yet, for all the talk of external shocks, there is a pattern here, and it is not a flattering one. Ministers seem happy to blame the weather, foreign conflicts, and one-off “catastrophic events” for Britain’s fragile food security, while quietly presiding over policies that have made British farming less viable, and the country less self-sufficient, in the process. It is hard not to notice the parallel with the 1970s, an era remembered, rightly or wrongly, for shortages, rationing anxieties, and a sense that Britain could no longer feed itself, and it is hard to shake the feeling that Labour’s approach is dragging the country back in that direction.
Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers’ Union, has warned that Britain has “taken it for granted that food will always be available,” and has called for greater support for agricultural businesses. He has invoked the memory of 2022, when supermarket shelves ran bare amid supply chain chaos, and has said that, if food security really is national security, as the Prime Minister claims, such scenes cannot be allowed to happen again. Supermarkets that year ran short of olive oil, lettuce, broccoli, and tomatoes, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while an outbreak of bird flu forced retailers to ration eggs.
James Bielby, chief executive of Food and Drink Wholesale UK, has echoed the warning, saying that industry has repeatedly stepped in to keep the country fed during crises, but cannot be expected to keep finding a way through every single time. He has pointed out that food is officially designated Critical National Infrastructure, and has argued that this label needs to mean something in practice, rather than sitting as a slogan while ministers drag their feet.
Even Ranjit Boparan, the poultry boss nicknamed Britain’s “chicken king,” has warned that food security is under threat, citing persistent cost pressures as strains on the supply chain. Tellingly, he has also called on the Government to slash regulation, to make it easier for farms and food factories to expand, a call that sits uneasily alongside Labour’s record on taxation and red tape for farmers.
Angela Eagle, the new environment secretary, has told the public to stock up on food, in case they are cut off from emergency services during extreme weather, framing this as sensible resilience. Many will read it differently, as an admission that the state itself no longer feels confident it can guarantee the basics, and as a tacit instruction for ordinary households to prepare for the kind of scarcity Britain has not seriously worried about in decades.
For its part, a Defra spokesman has insisted that the Prime Minister has made clear that food security is national security, and has pointed to a new package of government support for farmers, alongside ongoing work with the food and drink industry to strengthen resilience. The department has said it will consider the NAO’s findings as part of that effort.
Whether that reassurance holds up will be tested in the months ahead, as this autumn and winter bring the extreme weather ministers themselves have been warning about, and as farmers, wholesalers, and shoppers wait to see whether Labour’s promises translate into fewer closures, and a food system Britain can actually rely on.
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