Ministers are poised to break a promise to give MPs a final say before approving the controversial post-Brexit trade deal with Australia, sparking fresh anger.
The agreement – which will punish the farming and food sectors, on the government’s own figures – will clear parliament on Wednesday under an obscure behind closed doors process.
In February, a trade minister pledged what he called “the Grimstone rule”, laying down for “ratification not to take place” without a full debate by MPs, if requested.
The Commons trade committee has led calls for such a debate, as well as criticising its inability to scrutinise the deal properly, but MPs will leave for their summer holidays without it taking place.
Campaigners for fair trade and the environment accused ministers of “running down the clock” before ratification under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act.
Ruth Bergan, director of the Trade Justice Movement, urged MPs to demand an emergency debate before Wednesday, saying: “This government has been absolutely shameless in ignoring calls from parliament for more scrutiny.”
Nick Dearden, of Global Justice Now, said: “The UK stands on the brink of approving its first new trade deal for decades – one that will threaten thousands of British farming jobs – with barely a murmur.”
And Dr Nick Palmer, head of Compassion in World Farming UK, warned: “Free trade agreements without adequate safeguards will negatively impact the UK’s current animal welfare standards for decades to come – completely undermining our hard-won regulations and seriously undercutting higher welfare, pasture-based farmers.”
New polling commissioned by the first two groups found that 78 per cent of Britons want MPs to debate the pros and cons of new trade deals before they come into force.
And 70 per cent believe parliament should be guaranteed a vote on whether or not a trade deal goes ahead, the Yonder Consulting survey found.
The deal has huge political significance for the government – as the first post-Brexit agreement with a new partner – but is forecast to add just 0.08 per cent to the economy and not until 2035.
Farmers are angry over the scrapping of tariffs on imported beef and lamb, up to a “cap” on sales many times the current level of Australian meat sold in this country.
The government’s own impact assessment revealed the deal will cost farmers and food producers almost £300m, despite Boris Johnson’s vow to “protect” them.
There is also anger over the UK secretly dropping a pledge to bind Australia to the 1.5C global temperature rise target at the heart of the last year’s Cop26 climate negotiations.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed that Liz Truss – the then-trade secretary from 2019 to 2021 and now Tory leadership contender – received detailed warnings about the harsh impact on the farming and food sectors.
However, the forecasts of losses – from both the Australia and New Zealand agreements – were kept secret when talks were launched in 2020.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) did not respond to the criticism that the promise of a debate had been broken, but argued parliament was given “six months to scrutinise the legal text”.
