MacDougall calls for tighter controls on the import of meat 07/09/04

William MacDougal has lambasted the Government over the lack of effective action being taken to stem the flow of illegal meat imports into Britain, which is making its way into the local food chain.

The Conservative candidate for Tottenham called for new measures after an internal Government report indicated that thousands of tons of illegal meat imports, including such "bush meat" as monkey, rat, gorilla and elephant, were smuggled into the UK last year, exposing livestock to a range of diseases, including the deadly Foot and Mouth.

Most of the meat, which originates in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, is sold in street markets and ethnic restaurants after entering the country in normal passenger luggage and passing undetected through airport security systems. Some shops in Tottenham's West Green Road have, in the past, been prosecuted by Haringey Council for selling illegal "bush meat" -  as seen on TV's Life of Grime.

Pushing for special meat detection machines - costing £60,000 - to be installed at all ports and airports, MacDougall urged the Government to do more, and said:

"Three years on from the world's worse outbreak of Foot and Mouth, the UK remains woefully unprotected against the threat of human, animal and plant diseases entering this country through the smuggling of illegal meat.

"While other countries have installed stringent security measures, we have only six sniffer dogs guarding all 110 ports of entry into the UK. We remain wide open to further risk of imported disease while a simple and low cost measure is available now which the Government is choosing to ignore. As this problem is on our doorstep, I ask that our local Labour MP and Council join me in lobbying the Government for tighter controls of food imports - bad meat is not good meat."

ENDS.