BSE Inquiry

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Headline: GUMMER: WHY I GAVE MY CHILDREN BEEF

Wire Service: PA (PA News)

Date: Tue, Dec 8, 1998

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By Eileen , Consumer Affairs Correspondent, PA News

Former agriculture minister Gummer, who famously fed a beefburger

to his daughter while proclaiming that British beef was safe, today told

the inquiry investigating BSE that he had always made his public

pronouncements on the basis that he would feed beef to his own family.

Mr Gummer, minister of state for agriculture from September 1985 until

July 1988 and then Agriculture Minister from July 1989 until May 1993, fed

his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a burger in front of media cameras to

demonstrate his belief that beef was safe for everyone to eat.

That was five years before the first known victim of the human form of

BSE died.

Giving evidence at the London inquiry into the outbreak of BSE and

subsequent crisis he explained that the test he used to determine whether

he was right about the safety of beef was whether he felt it was safe to

feed his own four young children.

Mr Gummer, speaking about his first public statement on beef in January

1990, said: " I consistently put to myself the subjective question, `Do I

think this is safe for my children to eat?'

" Adults, about themselves, may take a certain kind of risk -- they smoke

and do all sorts of things.

" The only fair question I think before I made a comment to the public

was that I thought this was safe for my children to eat. "

The former minister added that if he could not have said that, no matter

what the other evidence was, he would not have been able to justify his

statements that beef was safe.

Mr Gummer said the best scientific evidence at that time was that any

risk of human infection was " remote " and that by complying with the

recommendations of the Southwood Report, the first Government report into

BSE, the scientists were " perfectly happy " for beef to be eaten.

After the much publicised case of a domestic cat becoming infected with

a form of BSE in May 1990 the Government made a further statement on beef

through Chief Medical Officer Sir Acheson.

In the statement he said there was no " scientific justification " for not

eating British beef, adding it was safe for everyone, both adults and

children.

Mr Gummer said he had felt no reservations about the statement and noted

that despite later comments which appeared to show " hesitation " on Sir

's part about safety issues none of this had ever been communicated

to him.

Before leaving the inquiry Mr Gummer was asked if he had changed his own

eating habits as a result of the BSE crisis.

He said: " No, I find one of the things that happens to me when I go out

is that people say `We've chosen beef for this evening's meal'.

" I probably do eat significantly more now and it's cheaper than it was. "

But Frances Hall, the mother of , one of the victims of Creutzfeld

Jakob Disease - the human form of BSE - said afterwards that she was not

impressed by Mr Gummer's evidence.

She said: " He was actually saying at the time that beef was safe. He

said he was sure beef was 100% safe.

" But they are saying now that that was not entirely true and there was

always a risk. I just hope he hasn't eaten the pieces of beef my son ate

and I hope his children didn't get those pieces of beef.

" It would just be really refreshing if one of them said, `We thought

beef was safe but sadly we were very much mistaken'. "

The inquiry had heard earlier that Mr Gummer had not believed a ban on

offal had been " essential for public health " after the Southwood report had

only suggested such action be taken.

He was then asked if he might have introduced legislation quicker if he

had thought that there was a serious risk to public health.

Mr Gummer refused to speculate saying: " All I can say is that was not

put to me. In fact the opposite was put to me. I saw this as a two belt and

braces procedure. "

But he was later forced to admit that if legislation was seen as urgent

there was often room to " find a way through. "

In fact, the offal ban was not introduced until November 1989 - 10

months after the Southwood report suggested it and despite the proposed ban

being backed by the Government's Chief Veterinary Officer Meldrum and

Mr Gummer's predecessor MacGregor.