‘Staunch eurosceptic’ Tory MP calls for free movement for plants

EU free movement campaigners claim request shows ‘irrational and backwards priorities’

The trade in plants has been disrupted by Brexit (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A "staunch eurosceptic" Tory MP has asked the government to bring in free movement across borders – but only for plants.

Robert Goodwill, who welcomed the end of EU free movement for people, wrote to ministers at Defra last month asking them to "ensure free movement of cultivated plant biodiversity".

The call by the ex Home Office immigration minister prompted anger from supporters of free movement for people, who said his priorities were wrong.

Sir Robert had previously told constituents that Britain should "take back control and bring an end to free movement once and for all", adding:

"When people voted to leave the EU, they did so in the knowledge that the free movement system imposed by the EU would end."

But in a written parliamentary question the MP for Scarborough and Whitby, who is a farmer by trade, asked environment ministers "what steps [the] Department is taking to ensure free movement of cultivated plant biodiversity".

Brexit has made it more difficult to export and import cultivated plants, with phytosanitary restrictions on trade between Great Britain, the continent, and Northern Ireland.

Naomi Smith, chief executive of pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain, told The Independent: “For those who campaigned so energetically against the free movement for British people to ironically now call for the free movement of plants, is the clearest distillation of the heartless, irrational and backwards priorities that drives some Eurosceptics.

“At a time when Brits are lining up to help people fleeing war and support others fighting tyranny, this parochial way of thinking is completely out of step with where the country is at.”

Defra minister Victoria Prentis replied to Sir Robert saying that plant imports posted "a risk because they can act as hosts or vectors and are one of the primary ways in which new pests and diseases can be introduced".

She added that "high plant health and biosecurity standards keep harmful pests and diseases out of the UK, benefiting both the horticultural trade and the environment in the long term" and said the UK "has some of the highest plant health and biosecurity standards in the world".