{"id":377610,"date":"2025-08-27T12:34:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/377610\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T12:34:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T12:34:20","slug":"uk-firms-spent-up-to-65m-on-post-brexit-food-export-licences-last-year-as-labour-pledges-to-scrap-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/377610\/","title":{"rendered":"UK firms spent up to \u00a365m on post-Brexit food export licences last year as Labour pledges to scrap scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK businesses spent as much as \u00a365 million last year on licences to export food and agricultural products to the EU \u2013 costs the government has pledged to eliminate within the next 18 months.<\/p>\n

\nFigures published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on Tuesday showed 328,727 export licences were issued in 2024, each costing between \u00a3113 and \u00a3200. That equates to a total burden of between \u00a337 million and \u00a365 million for British firms.<\/p>\n

The Cabinet Office minister for European negotiations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, will set out plans on Wednesday to remove the scheme entirely as part of a new agricultural and food products agreement with Brussels, to be finalised by 2027.<\/p>\n

Speaking at an event hosted by The Spectator and chaired by senior Brexiteer Michael Gove, Thomas-Symonds will argue that closer alignment with the EU is now firmly in the national interest.<\/p>\n

He is expected to launch a direct attack on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, saying: \u201cNigel Farage\u2019s manifesto at the next election will say in writing he wants to take Britain backwards, cutting at least \u00a39bn from the economy, bringing with it a risk to jobs and a risk of food prices going up. Nigel Farage wants Britain to fail. His model of politics feeds on it, offering the easy answers, dividing communities and stoking anger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s pro-EU<\/a> positioning contrasts sharply with the approach of the Conservatives and Reform UK. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has accused the government of \u201cbeing dragged back\u201d into the EU, while Farage has labelled the policy a \u201cBrexit betrayal\u201d.<\/p>\n

The DEFRA report accompanying the figures said the costs of export licences had hit smaller businesses particularly hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese firms often lack the capacity and economies of scale to manage the administrative and compliance demands associated with non-tariff measures,\u201d the report said. \u201cThis has created a competitive disadvantage between smaller firms and larger operators with in-house capability \u2013 although all stakeholders report increased costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current system, introduced under the Conservative government\u2019s post-Brexit trade deal, requires exporters of products such as meat, fish, fruit and vegetables to secure licences to access the EU market.<\/p>\n

Labour says its new deal will reduce border checks and eliminate the need for such licences, cutting red tape for exporters.<\/p>\n

In April, British supermarkets and food producers, including Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury\u2019s, urged Brussels to complete negotiations on the new goods and agriculture agreement, warning that the current system had imposed \u201cunnecessary red tape\u201d and damaged competitiveness.<\/p>\n

A Labour spokesperson added: \u201cThe Tory Brexit deal was a complete failure<\/a>, saddling businesses with costs they shouldn\u2019t have had to face and harming our economy in the process. But Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch have both committed to ripping up Labour\u2019s agreement and keeping this damaging red tape in place.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Britain\u2019s food exporters face at least another year of paperwork and added expense. But ministers insist that a new deal with Brussels by 2027 will finally remove one of the most costly non-tariff barriers created by Brexit.<\/p>\n

\t \t\t\"Jamie \t \tJamie Young \t<\/p>\n

\t\tJamie is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, bringing over a decade of experience in UK SME business reporting.
\nJamie holds a degree in Business Administration and regularly participates in industry conferences and workshops.
\n
\nWhen not reporting on the latest business developments, Jamie is passionate about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to inspire the next generation of business leaders. \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK businesses spent as much as \u00a365 million last year on licences to export food and agricultural products…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-377610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115100756802098799","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}