British Beef Prices Upsetting Westminster

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30447, 22 May 1964, Page 13

British Beef Prices Upsetting Westminster

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, May 21. Record beef prices in Britain are likely to be the centre of a major political row soon, political observers said yesterday. The Labour Party issued a statement saying it will press for an immediate debate on the situation when Parliament resumes on June 2 after the Whitsun recess.

It said it will exert “strong pressures” on the Government. “to show how they have allowed the present situation to

arise.” The statement recalled that Mr Harold Wilson, the Opposition Leader, had said in a speech three weeks ago that the meat situation underlined the need for the Labour Party’s policy for commodity commissions and long-term contracts to ensure supplies and a reasonable stability of prices. HIGHEST LEVEL

Observers said the Labour attack will centre on Mr Christopher Soames, Minister of Agriculture, as being responsible for current meat agreements.

Spokesmen for the national federation of meat traders say the price rise—now at the highest level since rationing ended in 1954—is caused by a shortage of Argentine beef and growing exports of homeproduced beef. A Ministry of Agriculture Spokesman said there was nothing the Government could do: beef was in short supply because Argentina had been unable to supply the

expected quantities because of a drought. He emphasised there was no general shortage of meat in Britain. There were plentiful supplies of pork, lamb and poultry and he added: “British beef production is now running at a record level.” The local butchers’ association, at Birmingham, meanwhile, decided today to ask local members of Parliament to impress “forcibly” on Mr Soames the urgency of the situation caused by the export of meat from the city market to France. Last week a French buyer bought 50 carcases from the Birmingham market for export to France —the first such purchase there. ‘ORDER NEEDED’ Mr George Darling, the Labour Party spokesman on consumer affairs, said in a statement: “AH the figures that have been given by the Ministry of Agriculture about exports of British cattle and meat to the Continent have been inaccurate. It is time we brought some order into the trade. If we don’t, there is a possibility of a meat famine in the autumn.

“There is a world shortage of meat and prices are rocketing. We are supplying Continental traders who are taking

advantage of the low—and it appears subsidised—prices obtaining here,” he said. It was the housewife who “paid for this lack of organised marketing,” Mr Darling added.