MPs attack Govt over horsemeat

Labour has been granted an urgent question in the Commons today on the horsemeat scandal.

Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh will ask the question at 10.30am this morning.

Anne McIntosh, the chair of the Environment Select Committee has stated that the horsemeat scandal is a 'European problem'.

She said the committee was surprised how widespread the issue was, and that the Food Standards Agency needs to work closer with its European counterparts to solve the issue.

Ministers are now facing calls from MPs for more testing of processed meat.

Watch: EU nations promise action over horsemeat scandal

The Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee chairman Anne McIntosh described the scale of the contamination in the food chain as "breathtaking" and warned that restoring consumer confidence would take time and money.

Ministers are facing calls from MPs for more testing of processed meat amid fears that beef products contaminated with horse meat could contain substances harmful to humans.

In a scathing report, the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee condemned the Government's "flat-footed" handling of the horse meat scandal, saying its ability to respond had been weakened by cuts to the Food Standards Agency (FSA).

The committee said the public appeared to have been "cynically and systematically duped" for financial gain by elements of the food industry - raising wider concerns about the safety of the contaminated products.

Speaking on behalf of the owner of Farmbox Meats in Wales, which is currently being investigated by the Food Standards Authority (FSA), solicitor Aled Owen said his client had been "disturbed" by allegations meat had been mis-labelled by the business.

He added that he and his client had also been "disappointed" by the way the matter had been commented upon by some politicians:

Asked whether David Cameron felt the Government had "got a grip" of the horsemeat issue, the Prime Minister's official spokesman told reporters: "We have".

He added: "The Government, working with the FSA, is doing the right thing.

"He was referring to the process by which we have been putting in place, over the past few weeks since the first evidence was found of contamination, the appropriate measures."

Mr Cameron's assurance that there was "nothing unsafe" on supermarket shelves was based on "clear advice from the FSA and the Chief Medical Officer," said the spokesman.

A statement issued on behalf of Dafydd Raw Rees, of Farmbox Meats stressed the company denied any wrongdoing.

The owner of a Welsh meat processing plant which is being investigated for mislabelling horse as beef denies doing anything wrong.

Dafydd Raw-Rees, the owner of Farmbox Meats Ltd in Llandre, Aberystwyth, told ITV News:

Mr Raw-Rees said that he has bought the beef from the abattoir in Yorkshire, which is also being investigated by the FSA.

Number 10 sources say that the Food Standards Agency raid on Farmbox Food was the result of investigations which began in mid-January. It was part of co-ordinated action by officials, agencies and the police across the UK and at a European Union level.