"Gordon should tell supermarkets to play fair!" - Farron

3.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 25th Sep 2007

Local MP Tim Farron is urging Prime Minister Gordon Brown to force the buyers for multinational supermarkets to pay a fair price for meat in light of the current concerns over foot and mouth. As it stands, farmers are permitted to take their animals to slaughter, but are now being forced to accept a price well below what they would normally accept because they are not permitted to return with the animals.

Mr Farron criticised the actions of the supermarkets, who are profiting from the desperate situation of farmers by deliberately offering poverty-rates for their animals, and said that as a 'conviction politician', the Prime Minister should use the courage of his conviction and get the supermarket CEOs around a table to tell them to play fair.

Tim Farron said:

"At a time like this, when farmers are really struggling to make ends meet, it is appalling that supermarkets are exploiting them like this. They really have the farmers over a barrel and are seemingly not above abusing this position.

"I want to see Gordon Brown, who made only a passing reference to farming in his speech yesterday, bring the supermarkets to book and start paying our farmers what they deserve."