Crunch time for Brexit: Smoky bacon crisps facing ban in Andy Burnham's controversial EU reset
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Smoky bacon crisps face being banned as part of Andy Burnham's Brexit reset.
The popular snack will be outlawed by a planned EU clampdown on the use of meat-based descriptions for vegetarian products.
Other popular items, such as steak flavour crisps and chicken Pot Noodles, also face being banned from supermarket shelves unless manufacturers reformulate them to contain meat.
The threat comes from Mr Burnham's decision to sign the UK up to following EU laws on food and farming in return for Brussels scrapping post-Brexit red tape on British food exports to the continent.
Under the terms of the deal, which will be signed at a UK-EU summit in Brussels on November 20, the UK will accept 'dynamic alignment' with EU rules, meaning it will have to adopt future regulations over which it will have little, if any, say.
Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said: 'Yet again, we see the practical drawbacks of Labour's cosying up to the EU.
'When 17.4 million UK citizens voted to leave the EU, it wasn't so Brussels could subsequently tell us what to put in a Walkers crisp packet.'
The EU is poised to implement new consumer laws barring manufacturers from marketing vegetarian and vegan products using meat-based descriptions.
Meat flavour crisps could be banned by new EU rules, even if they are to be sold in the UK
The move follows lobbying from the livestock sector and is designed to 'enhance transparency' and end confusion for consumers.
Although firms will still be able to market vegetarian burgers and sausages they will be barred from using 31 meat-related words to describe their products, including chicken, bacon, pork and steak.
Manufacturers will be given three years to clear existing stocks before the ban comes into force. The rules will apply to firms regardless of whether they trade with the EU.
The government hopes to agree a 'fudge' over the UK's development of gene-edited crops, which are currently banned in the EU. But some pesticides outlawed by Brussels are likely to face restrictions in the UK over time.
Ministers are also ready to sign off annual payments running into millions of pounds to help fund infrastructure projects in poorer EU states like Romania.
Brussels is also pushing for the UK to slash university tuition fees for EU students studying in the UK, potentially costing the taxpayer £450 million.
Mr Burnham said the potential economic benefits of the deal were too big to ignore.
He told the Economist magazine that new Treasury analysis suggested that, 'at the high end', easing food and farming exports to the EU 'could add up to 0.4 per cent of GDP' – equal to £12 billion a year.
He added: 'Now, that is a number that you cannot ignore… If something can be done to add 0.4 per cent to British GDP, that should be pursued very vigorously, and that's what I'm doing.'
But the claim has been questioned in a new paper by the Growth Commission, which said the figures were based on 'flawed assumptions'.
Commission chairman Shanker Singham, a former government trade adviser, said the calculation 'fails to take account of a number of vital and costly factors'.
The new analysis warned that 'in the long run' aligning with EU regulations could cost the UK £73 billion because of 'lost opportunities' to adopt more competitive rules and damage to trade with non-EU countries.
Mr Singham said: 'Quite simply, this EU reset is being sold to the British people on the back of flawed assumptions and bogus calculations.'
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