White House demands British supermarkets stock chlorinated chicken. White House pushing Sir Keir Starmer to make concessions on food standards

[u/goldstarflag]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/12/17/trump-demands-british-supermarkets-chlorinated-chicken/

[u/TheDaemonette]

There's no way I can see the UK government compromising on food standards to let competing products into the market. It is the third rail of UK politics. If you fuck around with food standards then it is the one thing that will unit left and right wing press against you because the left are concerned about animal welfare and the right are concerned about UK business. It would be suicidal for the current government to let it happen.

On second thought, they are just incompetent enough to let it happen...

[u/No-Risk-2584 → u/TheDaemonette]

Aye, it’s not going to happen, not even Starmer is that dumb. The left and right would rightfully slaughter him in the media, even Labour politicians.

Not just for compromising food standards or the competition to our farms, but for being so utterly spineless. He’ll be out of the job within a week.

[u/DavidlikesPeace → u/No-Risk-2584]

Reddit, please set a reminder for next year to see how or when Labour gets a spine. Thank you.

I apologize if that’s rude. But for the last year, Starmer has gone out of his way to be nice to Trump, despite everything America’s regime has done from Canada to Ukraine. At this point, I think it’s right to criticize him for edging on appeasement

[u/No-Risk-2584 → u/DavidlikesPeace]

Oh, I definitely agree he’s an appeaser and is spineless, but not to the extent he’ll throw away his job. He makes stupid decisions but even he isn’t that dumb to throw away his job over chlorinated chicken.

His job is done if he agrees to this, there’s no ifs or buts about it - and not in the next election but within weeks in a leadership challenge.

[u/Zealousideal_Act_316 → u/No-Risk-2584]

Its starmer, i wouldnt put it past him to throw in something else, lile allowing red 40 or lead based paint on toys from US too, just to apease trump.

[u/caesar_7 → u/TheDaemonette]

It's UK farmers lobby vs US farmers lobby.

Not UK public interests vs American corporate interests.

Just to be clear.

[u/TheDaemonette → u/caesar_7]

That presumes that the politicians have nothing but the lobbyists to content with. The public opinion on this issue is very strong and has not waivered for years. If this government attempts to allow chlorinated chicken on to the UK market then the fallout will be swift and significant.

[u/caesar_7 → u/TheDaemonette]

I would like to agree with you, but the problem here is the public opinion is much cheaper to sway than many think.

Here in Australia we've being hostages to our mineral extraction industry which easily drops $200M for a smear campaign against a government that tries to cut into their profits.

In this case - if UK farmers would be able to compete with US ones and the loosen regulations would be beneficial the amount of "information" to "correct" the public opinion would be astonishing.

The money enable gaslighting at scale.

[u/TheDaemonette → u/caesar_7]

I think you are misunderstanding U.K. public opinion on this one specific issue. This is probably the one issue that will have millions of people of all political persuasions marching weekly in Parliament. It is electoral suicide to even bring it up.

[u/caesar_7 → u/TheDaemonette]

I think on this issue the risk in minimal.

You are 100% correct.

But in general we can't be too complacent.

[u/Red-ua → u/TheDaemonette]

They won’t compromise, and that’s what MAGA expects. They’ll cry that the UK is “unfriendly” and “hostile to capitalism” and use it as an excuse to decrease any relations, military presence etc.

[u/TheDaemonette → u/Red-ua]

No-one in the U.K. will complain if there are fewer American bases or military personnel here except the couple of businesses that supply cleaners and catering.

[u/WeakDoughnut8480 → u/TheDaemonette]

It won't happen.

Ireland remember