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Local MP Raises Lack of Border Checks on Food Imports in Commons

Gordon MP Richard Thomson has said the UK Government has given away control after he questioned the Minister for Industry and Economic Security in the House of Commons yesterday about the lack of border checks on food imports.  

The SNP MP said the threat to the country’s food safety and security through the failure of the UK Government to introduce checks of our own has led to the lack of a level playing field for our own producers.  Mr Thomson also criticised the lack of certainty for businesses as a result of constantly changing UK Government policy on border checks.  

Speaking following Business and Trade Questions in the House of Commons, Richard Thomson MP said:  

“As if the future stoking of inflation through extra Brexit red tape was not bad enough, businesses are already having to cope with uncertainty, the lack of a level playing field and the threat to our own food safety and security through the failure to introduce checks of our own.    

“Given that Ministers were saying as recently as April that those checks will begin on 31 October, the Minister really needs to explain how businesses are expected to get to grips with all this turmoil in UK Government policy given their tendency to keep kicking the can down the road over border checks.  

“The only thing worse than bad border checks is no border checks at all and the UK Government needs to get its act together so businesses have some degree of certainty as to what the arrangements will be and when they will come into force.”  

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• Press Release