What would Labour’s manifesto pledges mean for food and drink?

If it wasn’t for the fact that so much of it had been widely flagged, Labour’s manifesto would have probably caused the political equivalent of an earthquake when it landed on desks yesterday.

Even with plenty of forewarning, the aftershocks of Jeremy Corbyn’s spending plans are still reverberating.

But the faultline between Labour’s proposals and those expected to come from the Tories when their manifesto emerges in the next few days is not quite so clear when it comes to its appeal to the food and drink industry.

On paper at least, several of Labour’s core policies are exactly what industry leaders have been calling for, especially when it comes to Brexit.

Yet businesses will also no doubt be extremely nervous, not just about the money Labour plans to throw around, but about its apparent ‘anti-big business’ tone.

Labour’s Brexit policy has been widely mocked by the Conservatives and other parties. However, its promise of a second referendum, or a deal that pledges no border on the Irish Sea, a customs union with Europe and alignment with the single market, could have been written by the FDF.

Getting Brexit done will invite more impossible deadlines – and more chaos

The party also promises “dynamic alignment” on workers’ rights – and with fears over the impact on the workforce from Brexit almost as big an issue as the threat of tariffs and barriers to trade, this is also music to the industry’s ears.

Corbyn has made headlines with his promises to protect UK food imports from US food laced with rat hair. But it is securing alignment with the EU, as much as protecting the UK from Trump, that could be a vote winner for the industry.

Other less controversial pledges are also encouraging, including an increase in funding for Defra and its arms’ length bodies of £70m by 2024, and the establishment of a National Food Commission to make food security a reason to intervene in the economy. There is also the pledge to work with local councils to minimise food waste. 

Meanwhile an extra £5.6bn in funding to improve the standard of flood defences, also promised, will resonate with farmers hit by the recent flooding crisis, while putting farmers, fishermen, food producers and workers at the heart of plans for delivering healthy food locally is a sentiment many will admire.

Yet there are serious doubts about other key elements of Labour’s plans. Raising the national living wage to £10 per hour is bound to be seen as a taste of things to come by retailers who have already expressed concern over Corbyn’s plan for an army of 300,000 ’green apprentices’, to be funded by a 20% raid from the Apprenticeship Levy.

Is retail to pay for the green growth of areas such as manufacturing and construction, they have asked. Meanwhile there has been mockery in some quarters of Corbyn’s plans to rescue the high street. Labour’s plan for a new land tax and to force “greedy landlords” to open shuttered premises by giving powers to local authorities, are, many believe, unrealistic and an example of where the manifesto looks like it is trying to turn the clock back to the 1970s.

In other areas, however, Labour has held back as it tries not to alienate businesses, despite its attack on billionaire Britain. The party would extend the sugar tax to cover milk drinks, it says, and enforce stricter regulations on HFSS marketing. These pledges could have come straight out of the Tory obesity plan.

If – and it still seems a big one – Labour comes to power, it is what it might do next that will be occupying many in the food industry, despite all those spectacular and expensive pledges for spending spelt out in its manifesto. 

With food front and centre, who deserves industry’s votes?