The Conservative leader, William Hague, has accused the Government of "insufferable arrogance" for imposing a ban on beef on the bone.

The sale of beef on the bone is now illegal in Britain, but some butchers are determined to defy the ban and are continuing to sell it to customers.

The Agriculture Minister, Jack Cunningham, has denied over-reacting and insists the ban is necessary.

West Midlands butcher Ray Robinson said he is determined to make a stand against the Government and has urged other butchers to do the same.

He said: "If you've got a principle and you've got a belief you have to stand by it."

In London the Tory leader, William Hague, travelled to Smithfield market, where beef prices had fallen by 5%, to show his solidarity with meat traders.

William Hague ... backing meat trade

The Tories oppose the ban and will line up with the Liberal Democrats to say so when it is debated in Parliament in the new year.

"What's wrong with letting the consumers decide for themselves?" Mr Hague said.

"That was one of the options presented to the Government - to give people the information and to let people make their own decisions."

But the Agriculture Minister, Jack Cunningham, says the ban is needed to prove Britain is doing all it can to eradicate BSE and get the European ban on British beef exports lifted.

He is also stopping foreign imports of beef which do not reach British hygiene standards.

Jack Cunningham: has hit back at EU meat

He said: "I think increasingly people know that Britain has been at the forefront of taking safeguards on beef and we shall continue to do so.

"Our beef is a safe as anyone else's in Europe and safer than most and it's about time we had some easement on the ban on British beef."

German Euro-MP Dagmar Roth-Behrendt points out the UK ban on imported meat, which fails to meet British hygiene standards, would only last until March, when Europe-wide standards come into effect.

She said: "You have to justify that in the internal market and you have to make your point and prove there is a health risk. You are not allowed to just simply close your borders, neither Germany, nor France, nor the UK."

David Statham, of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, foresees problems with enforcing the beef-on-the-bone ban.

He said: "The only way we can actually charge people is to catch them in the act of handing it over and that would be incredibly resource-intensive and not really a very good use of my officers time."

Mr Statham says the restrictions could have been drawn up much better and he says it would have been better if the bones which were the source of the scare were prevented from leaving the abattoirs.
 

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