‘CHLORINATED CHICKEN saves lives’, declared Conservative MP Bill Wiggin in the House of Commons this week, prompting the SNP to raise concerns over a possible ‘race to the bottom’ approach to post-Brexit food standards.

The former shadow minister for agriculture and fisheries told sitting MPs that ‘chlorinated chicken is not the monster that it is made out to be.’

In his own constituency of North Herefordshire, he claimed that poultry producers in the region struggled with campylobacter and advocated the process of chlorination as a means to ensure better hygiene.

“I have huge, huge numbers of poultry producers in my constituency,” said Mr Wiggin. “And the nightmare for them is campylobacter, which causes food poisoning and kills people. It kills about six people a year through food poisoning. If we chlorinate our chicken, we should save those lives. Do not be fooled by the chlorination argument.”

Responding to Mr Wiggin’s proclamation, SNP MP Deirdre Brock was quick to point out that the process of chlorination was often used as a ‘mask’ to compensate for poor welfare standards and that if stricter standards of food production were in place, the need for chlorination would most likely be eliminated.

The SNP’s shadow Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary commented after the Commons session: “The fact that some Tories are flirting with a race to the bottom on food standards post-Brexit should ring alarm bells in our world-class agriculture sector.

“Flooding our food market with chlorinated chicken was once a threat as part of a Tory-Trump US trade deal, but for a Tory MP to advocate washing our own chicken in chlorine to overcome issues in the production chain is a step too far,” she said.

“Producers have been consistently shafted by this Tory government, with a lack of clarity on post-Brexit funding and last-minute fix-ups to deliver emergency farm payments," claimed Ms Brock. "Scotland’s farming industry deserves better than this – it is time for the Tories to listen to the industry and rule this out,” she urged.

Mr Wiggin’s comments came as a surprise following an interview with Defra secretary Theresa Villiers last week where she assured members of the public that the UK would not be importing chlorinated chicken under future trade deals.

Ms Villiers said: “We will not be importing chlorinated-chicken. We will not be importing hormone-treated beef. Both of those are illegal under EU law, which we are importing into our domestic system.

“There are legal barriers to their import and those are going to stay in place.” She also confirmed that the government would 'hold the line' in any trade negotiations with the US and would 'defend our national interests and our values, including our high standards of animal welfare.'