Rally held in Westminster to back MP’s farming Bill

South Lakes MP Tim Farron led a rally in Westminster last week of farmers and campaigners in support of his Parliamentary Bill which would protect British food and farming standards.

Tim's Trade Agreement (Parliamentary Scrutiny and Farming) Bill would give MPs a vote on international trade deals and would force the Government to consider the effects of environmental and animal welfare standards in those trade deals.

Speaking during the rally, Tim said: "The bottom line is that poorer standards are cheaper. If you give countries with lower standards a competitive advantage - as we have done with the trade deals - it will damage not only animal welfare and the environment it will also damage our farmers.

"This is a really crucial moment. We have never needed farmers more and no government of any colour has threatened the future of British farming more than this one.

"The Trade and Agriculture Commission still does not have very many teeth. It can write a report, but if the Government wants to ignore it, it just will.

"I want to make it not possible for the Government to pass trade deals without the consent of farming communities like my own."