MP defends vegan stance in maiden speech

But she has now come out in support of the British farming industry during a passionate speech to the Labour conference in Brighton.

Ms McCarthy said Labour would continue to oppose badger culling as a means of combating bovine tuberculosis in cattle.

Speakers were asked whether a vegan politician who believed meat eaters should be treated like smokers could be seen as a credible shadow Defra secretary by Britain’s livestock farmers.

She added: “It was a Labour Government that banned hunting with hounds, and Labour will never let it return”.

Meanwhile, the National Farmers Union (NFU) and Food and Drink Federation (FDF) held a fringe event on food strategy at the Labour party conference yesterday (September 28).

Recently appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Kerry McCarty, has said that the UK’s continued membership in the European Union (EU) is “vital” for environmental issues such as the development of the circular economy.

“People do have their personal views, and to me that’s a personal view which informs a few of my opinions but it doesn’t mean I’m going to be a vigilante crusader”.

During the speech she also said she wanted British products to be bought over foreign produce.

Ms McCarthy’s appointment to the role by Jeremy Corbyn was criticised because she has been a vegan for two decades and a vegetarian before that.

McCarthy also defended her vegan diet, which has sparked controversy because dairy farming and Britain’s meat industry fall under her remit.

FDF director general Ian Wright told the audience that Ms McCarthy deserved people’s respect.

She said: “The world is not going to turn vegan because I am in post”.

Her appointment has alarmed countryside campaigners, who warned that her veganism and position as vice-president of the anti-hunting League Against Cruel Sports would cloud her judgement on farming.

“Once you have a job, you have to respect the tenets of the job”. I don’t think she’s doing enough.

Later, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, she showed little sympathy for dairy farmers struggling on the price front, saying: “It’s a supply and demand thing”.

The food industry – both in relation to production and processing – was a flawless example of why it was “unhelpful to divide the urban from the rural”.

Ms Smith said her own Sheffield constituency had a lot of hill farmers – particularly sheep producers – and food companies within its boundaries.

“We achieve so much more by co-operation than by acting alone”, she said.