Britain’s new farming minister fainted at the sight of meat during a tour of a food processing plant, according to a report from The Sun, highlighting the left-wing Labour government’s disconnect with the agricultural sector it claims to serve.
Stephen Morgan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs — the official title for Britain’s farming minister — took ill when shown a refrigerated storage room filled with shelves of meat from slaughtered cattle at a Lake District processing plant.
The incident occurred as Morgan toured agricultural sites to familiarize himself with his new role under Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s administration.
“He’d been shown large chunks of beef as well as some steaks but then he felt faint. He said something like, ‘I don’t feel too well — I need a moment’. It’s not a great look for the farming minister to faint at the sight of meat.”
Morgan played down the episode, claiming he merely struggled with the temperature change from Britain’s summer heat to the chilled locker.
“I felt unwell moving between the extreme heat and cold storage, and I’m grateful to all the staff at Lake District Farmers,” Morgan said. “Hats off to the brilliant people working in these conditions and temperatures to keep the nation fed.”
But the fainting spell shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with Morgan’s background — or lack thereof.
When Morgan was appointed last month, trade publication Scottish Farmer ran the headline “Morgan takes farming brief despite lacking agricultural background,” noting the appointment “continues a long-running trend of ministers arriving at Defra without direct farming experience.”
The paper pointed out Morgan arrived in the role with no direct farming background and after supporting the government’s controversial inheritance tax reforms targeting family farms.
The incident comes as Prime Minister Burnham acknowledges bad blood between farmers and his Labour government and admits he has to “win” their trust back.
That trust was shattered under the previous Labour government led by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, which seemed ready to go to war with the countryside to push through left-wing policies at practically any cost.
Westminster became the scene of repeated European-style tractor protests, with London’s streets clogged with hundreds of tractors turned out against insidious tax raids on family farms.
Critics said the death tax policies would ensure no farm could survive inheritance duties, preventing them from being passed to the next generation.
“This Labour policy will kill British farming and kill our food security. We can’t be dependent on other countries. They’re completely out of touch. Farmers, the working class, the National Insurance hikes – it’s killing everyone.”
Farmers rallied against “Starmer the Farmer Harmer” at protests last year, defending the family farms Labour seemed determined to destroy.
Now Burnham’s government has appointed a farming minister who can’t handle the sight of the very product Britain’s farmers produce.
Starmer the Farmer Harmer: Over 10,000 Protest in London Against Leftist Tax Raid on Family Farmshttps://t.co/FElcH1F5ID
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 19, 2024
