Migrant tomato workers

Nothing is certain in this new post-Brexit age. Will the pound sink to new lows? When will Theresa May pull the trigger? Has Nigel Farage really disappeared for good? But there’s one crucial question we’ve all failed to ask, according to Dispatches: Who’ll Do Your Job Now? (C4, 8 August, 8pm): Will our tomatoes now start funding ballistic missiles? If you’re stumped (and you should be) bear with me.

More than 40,000 EU migrants currently pick our fruit & veg each year. Hertfordshire tomato farmer Eric employs a workforce made up solely of Polish workers and says he hasn’t had a Brit knock on his door in eight long years. But what will happen once the UK formally exits the EU?

Farmers may begin to look further afield, suggested presenter Morland Sanders, following in the footsteps of Polish companies forced to fill the gap from migration to the UK with labour from Bangladesh, the Philippines and - wait for it - North Korea.

Sanders captured sight of these North Korean employees filing out of major Polish tomato producers (whose products are stocked in Tesco, no less). These labourers are extorted by the regime for 80% of their income in order to fund Kim Jong-un’s nuclear weapons programme, say human rights experts.

“Nobody is suggesting” UK companies will do the same to plug the gap, Sanders was quick to say. But as the show drew parallels between producers in Hertfordshire and Warsaw, this conclusion was hard to avoid. Perhaps the most sobering view of life outside the EU we’ve had so far.

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