Nicola Sturgeon has demanded Boris Johnson apologise for “misleading” comments he made over the US ban on British lamb exports being lifted.
The First Minister said it would be appropriate for the PM to say sorry after bombshell emails were leaked to the Daily Record.
UK lamb exports to the US have been banned since 1989, but during a trip last week to the US Johnson claimed there had been a rethink.
He boasted: “I can tell you today that what we’re going to get from the US now is a lifting of the decades-old ban – totally unjustified, discriminating against British farmers – the ban on British lamb.
“We are going to be able to export British lamb to the US for the first time in decades.
He said: “It will be for the kebabs, the koftas, the lamb burgers… the people of the US will be supplied at last by Britain.”
But emails from inside Defra – the UK Government Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – raise serious questions about Johnson’s claims.
An email from September 23, on the day after Johnson’s claims, showed an official saying: “I wanted to reach out to you in light of the Prime Minister’s statement to the media yesterday with regards to market access for UK lamb to the US and the lifting of the current ban – some of what he said was misleading and as a result we have prepared some reactive lines, please see email below."
Another email made clear the ban had “not yet been lifted” and there would be “many steps to be taken” before exports could go ahead.
The official noted: “Kebabs, koftas – as named by the PM – are extremely unlikely to be initially eligible for exports due to specific requirements for such products.
The official also wrote that, “if pushed”, the following could be said: “We understand the ultimate publication of the updated rule, and therefore the ‘lifting of the ban’ is not subject to a deadline.”
At First Minister’s Questions, SNP MSP Jim Fairlie asked Sturgeon about the Record scoop and whether Johnson should apologise and “set the record straight”.
She said: “Jim Fairlie appears to be suggesting that not everything that comes out of the mouth of Boris Johnson can be relied upon. I mean perish the thought. Perhaps the more pertinent question is if anything that comes out of the mouth of Boris Johnson can be entirely relied upon.
“I think the Prime Minister does owe an apology because clearly what he said is not the case and of course has been described as misleading.
"But of course this is a UK Government that has betrayed our farmers, our fishermen, our entire agricultural sector, and each and every day right now it is paying the price of the Tory Brexit, and that price is getting higher and higher with every day that passes.
“So perhaps an apology not just for a misleading statement in terms of the import ban on lamb, but an apology for all of the damage that this UK Government has done through Brexit would indeed be appropriate.”
The Record contacted Downing Street and we were instead provided with a response from DEFRA: "We don’t comment on leaked documents."
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