Nigel Farage supports idea of selling US chlorine-washed chicken in UK
31st March 2025
The British farming community has criticised Nigel Farage’s recent suggestion that the UK should allow American low-quality, chlorine-washed chicken to be sold in the country as part of a free trade deal with Donald Trump.
Not so long ago the Reform leader had been portraying himself as a champion of British farmers.
However, following the surprising shift, MP Farage is now saying that UK consumers should be allowed to have a choice of whether they would like to buy cheap imported meat.
The suggestion met with alarms raised by farming campaigners about the standards of chicken imported from US farms and slaughterhouses, as they use chlorine to wash carcasses and destroy bacteria like salmonella.
This follows the news that the UK is trying to secure a deal with Donal Trump to avoid the 25 percent tariffs on steel and aluminium and escape further reciprocal tariffs which could be introduced next month.
Brits opposing imports
According to The Independent, the Reform UK leader, who is a close ally of Donald Trump, said the US president would “want US agricultural products to be sold in Britain” as part of any deal, risking anger from agricultural groups and consumers.
MP Farage told BBC Radio 4: “Now there’s been some concern about chlorine-treated chicken, etc., but there is an answer to that, which is to label things, let consumers decide.
“So I think this shouldn’t be just about avoiding tariffs, it should be a broader deal.”
He added: “I would allow consumers in America to buy our products and consumers here to buy their products, and provided we have the right labelling, that’s good.”
The last major polling done on the issue, conducted in 2020, revealed that 80 percent of Britons are opposed to allowing imports to the UK, and the same proportion is also against allowing chicken products that have been farmed using hormones, The Independent reported.
Hormone-treated meats, including chicken and pork, treated with anti-microbial washes, are currently banned in the UK and EU but are allowed to be sold in the US.
Farmers cannot deal with another trade deal
This government has repeatedly promised that it would not repeat the mistakes of past trade deals and that it would safeguard UK farming and its core standards of food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection in any future trade negotiations.
At the NFU’s conference in February, Defra secretary of state Steve Reed said: “We will never lower our food standards in trade agreements. British farming deserves a level playing field where you can compete and win and that is what you’ll get.
“We will use the full range of powers at our disposal to protect our most sensitive sectors.”
The UK farming unions are now asking the government to honour these commitments.
In a joint statement, the farming unions’ presidents said: “While we do not want to see tariffs on UK agri-food going into the US, our second largest export market beyond the EU, it means our negotiators are on the back foot from the get-go and makes a balanced negotiation incredibly difficult.
“With the UK farming sector already under huge strain, with confidence at an all-time low and investment dropping day by day, it cannot deal with another trade deal which sells out domestic food and farming.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve seen a much stronger performance by governments in safeguarding our most vulnerable sectors and seeking mutually beneficial trade deals.”
The presidents added that this is the new Labour government’s first test – “to see if it will do what it promised and stand up for UK farming, or if it will roll over under pressure from an aggressive US administration”.
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