Minister who blamed firms for post-Brexit butcher shortage accused of false claims

A Home Office minister has been accused of making false claims to a Commons inquiry, as he sought to blame pig firms for a post-Brexit butcher shortage.

Kevin Foster found himself under fire for rejecting a recommendation to make it easier to bring in EU workers, to plug the shortfall – which, a senior Tory MP told him, is “destroying” British farming.

But, downplaying talk of crisis, the immigration minister instead claimed only one of the UK’s four major pork processors had applied for a licence to sponsor visas for overseas staff.

After the grilling by the Commons environment committee on Tuesday, all four companies protested that they are sponsors – with the information on the Home Office website.

Now Neil Parish, the committee’s Conservative chair, has written to Mr Foster demanding an explanation and alerting George Eustice, the environment secretary, to the situation.

A letter reads: “Your point that only one major pork processor had a Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence was a key part of your argument that the pressures on the sector are not as serious as had been described and that the sector was not doing enough to access the support available through the immigration system.

“If it turns out your argument is not supported by the latest information, I’d be grateful if you could revise your remarks and commit to reviewing the support that the Home Office is providing to the sector.”

In a second row, the minister also claimed that workers seeking visas only needed the equivalent of a GCSE English pass at grade ‘G’ to pass a language test.

“We’re not asking people to analyse the works of Shakespeare here. We are asking for basic conversational English,” Mr Foster told the committee.

But this is also misleading, the committee has been told, because it “would not be appropriate to compare grades” in England with the framework in mainland Europe without “an in-depth analysis”.

Mr Foster has been given until Monday 5 January to provide satisfactory explanations – without which he is likely to be recalled to face the committee again.

Warnings of farm labour shortages have raged for months, after Brexit slammed the door on the ability of EU nationals to move to the UK and work freely.

In October, ministers performed a U-turn by allowing 800 butchers and 5,500 poultry workers to enter the UK on short-term visas.

But, this week, Mr Foster admitted the number of butchers actually in place is under 100 – after the farming industry protested at the cost and bureaucracy of the visa system.

He criticised companies that have failed to apply to sponsor visas, telling the committee: “They could be used immediately if people wanted to do so.”