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> Headline: HOGG ATTACKS FELLOW TORIES OVER `MAD COW' CRISIS

> Wire Service: PA (PA News)

> Date: Wed, Dec 16, 1998

>

> Copyright 1998 PA News. Copying, storing, redistribution,

> retransmission,

> publication, transfer or commerical exploitation of this information is

> expressly forbidden.

>

>

> By Eileen , Consumer Affairs Correspondent, PA News

> Hogg today hit out at Major and other Conservative Cabinet

> colleagues, saying they should have acted on his advice to clear certain

> beef products from supermarket shelves and ban their export during the

> " mad cow disease " crisis.

> The former agriculture minister said that had his recommendations been

> followed by the former Tory Government, the BSE outbreak would have been

> less " acute " .

> Mr Hogg, agriculture minister from 1995 to the 1997 General Election,

> was giving evidence to the London inquiry into the crisis.

> He said he had tried to persuade the then Prime Minister Mr Major and

> senior Cabinet ministers to recommend that all beef products from cows

> over the age of 30 months be taken off the shelves because of a higher

> risk of BSE infection.

> It was estimated this would cost about 1 billion to implement - and

> even more in compensation to retailers and manufacturers.

> Mr Hogg said he also advocated an export ban on these products and the

> setting up of a public inquiry into the crisis.

> Had the Government acted to stop the exports, the worldwide blanket ban

> on British beef may not have been imposed, or at least lifted earlier than

> last month, he said.

> He also noted that every single one of his recommendations were later

> implemented.

> But in Cabinet meetings and ad hoc conversations, Mr Major and other

> senior members of Government rejected his ideas and the possibility of

> what was described as the " Armageddon option " of slaughtering the entire

> British beef herd.

> The minutes of a late-night meeting of senior Cabinet ministers showed

> Mr Major believed it was a " huge leap " from the risks to human health of

> BSE to then destroy the entire British herd.

> This would mean the destruction of the beef industry and " huge national

> panic " .

> At the time, Government scientists were sounding alarm bells over the

> discovery of new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease - linked by many to

> consumption of BSE-infected products and which particularly affected young

> people.

> There had been, up to this point, nine confirmed cases of the new

> strain of the fatal degenerative brain illness and three suspected.

> Mr Hogg said today that because of the strong Cabinet opposition to his

> policy proposals, he had to get on with introducing the limited action

> chosen by Government - even though he believed they were mistaken.

> He said: " I had been comprehensively rejected. There was no point in

> trying to overturn the view of the Prime Minister and his colleagues. I

> thought it was an error, but I got on with it. Either I accepted that or

> I resigned. "

> During his five hours of evidence, the former minister said: " I

> believe that the proposals the Ministry of Agriculture put forward were

> right. I think it is at least possible that if we had done that the

> crisis would have been less acute.

> " I recommended a ban on the export of goods and products which did not

> comply with the 30-month rule. It is at least possible that if my

> recommendation to that effect had been implemented we would not have had a

> ban, and if we had a ban we would have been more influential in the

> formation of it and the mechanisms for lifting it. "

> Earlier the inquiry heard that Mr Hogg had described the Government's

> position as " untenable " once he realised the anti-BSE measures were being

> flouted and the risk to public health increased with the appearance of

> nvCJD.

> When he came to office a ban on beef from infected cows and certain

> beef offal had been introduced, but Mr Hogg said he soon realised that

> slaughterhouses were not complying fully with the regulations.

> Mr Hogg said he " could not rely purely on those controls " .

> The inquiry heard that Mr Hogg's department had always adopted a " belt

> and braces " approach to the BSE crisis.

> He explained that the belt was the belief, held until March 1996, that

> BSE could not be caught by humans, while the braces were the existing

> controls.

> But when the link between BSE and CJD was made, the " belt " had gone.

> He added: " My view was that the trousers would not hold with the

> braces alone. "

> As the first stage of the BSE inquiry drew to a close today, it was

> still not clear whether Mr Major would be called to give evidence.

> Officials have stated that the inquiry's second stage will begin in

> February next year and it is known that Mr Major, and fellow former Prime

> Minister Lady Thatcher, have been contacted and asked to provide written

> statements about their handling of the BSE crisis.

> Both have until the end of January to reply.