𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A Labour minister sensationally told a radio host to “get a life” as an extraordinary row broke out over a potential ban on crisps.

Smoky bacon-flavoured crisps will fall foul of planned European laws preventing the use of “meaty” terms to describe vegetarian food. This means that Labour’s food and farming deal with the EU could lead to the snack being banned.

The rules are designed to avoid consumers being confused, as crisp manufacturers don’t actually use meat in the snack.

The food and farming deal is among three agreements Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to sign with Brussels negotiators at the EU-UK summit on November 20, alongside a deal on emissions trading and a youth mobility scheme.

The food deal, which is expected to see the UK adapt to EU regulations on plant, animal and food trade standards to remove post-Brexit checks from exports, has led to concerns about a ban on smoky bacon crisps.

And Farming Minister Dame Angela Eagle compared the row to the debate over bendy bananas.

Asked whether closer alignment with the bloc could lead to the banning of bacon crisps’ labelling, Dame Angela told Times Radio host Stig Abell: “Oh, Stig. I mean, really, we’ve had EU straight bananas, and now we’re talking about banning smoky bacon crisps; I think you should get a life.

“This is actually about ensuring that we can do business with our closest neighbours. We’ve got huge potential growth in our economy if we allow our farmers and food producers to be able to export into Europe again without all the huge uncertainty and the costs and frictions that Brexit brought us.

“This will be a deal that improves that situation and it will enable this economy to grow and for us to have higher levels of prosperity than we’ve had before.

“If you want to obsess about smoky bacon crisps, I suppose that’s your choice.”

Dame Angela declined to commit to giving farmers more time to adapt to new trading arrangements with the EU, arguing that removing post-Brexit barriers as quickly as possible would bring “huge economic benefits”.

Pressed on why the Government had rejected farmers’ calls for a 24-month transition period to prepare for changes, she said ministers were listening closely to their concerns.

She told the BBC’s Today programme: “The transition is a balance between getting and accessing those benefits as quickly as possible, but dealing with some of the transitional issues that you have to deal with whenever you’re moving from one system to another.”

Mr Burnham has said that the deals to be agreed at the UK-EU summit could raise GDP by 0.4% – up from the previous estimate of 0.3%.

Meanwhile, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier suggested the UK could rejoin the EU without having to adopt the euro, but would have to accept freedom of movement and membership of the single market.

Mr Barnier, who led the EU team during the bitter divorce proceedings between the UK and Brussels, told Sky News: “I always thought during the Brexit negotiations that the door will remain open.

“If it is the choice of the UK to ask for a new negotiation to rejoin, it’s perfectly possible to begin such a negotiation without any kind of obligation to take part in the euro.”

Asked whether that meant there was wiggle room in the EU’s normal requirement for new member states to take the currency, he said: “Yes.

“But what is, and what remains unnegotiable, is the condition to join the single market.

“There is no … possible negotiation on any kind of cherry-picking or the single market ‘a la carte’.

“The UK knows quite perfectly the condition to be part of and to rejoin the single market and the customs union.”

Mr Burnham has said the Government will “explore options” following the UK-EU summit for a different long-term relationship with the bloc.

His remarks in recent weeks have fuelled questions about the prospect of the UK returning to the EU or adopting its freedom of movement rules, but the Prime Minister has insisted voters would ultimately be “the boss” of any changes.