THE British Labour Party has promised to set up an independent food standards agency in response to a row over a government report linking poor hygiene in abattoirs with recent deaths from E.coli poisoning.
Announcing the party's intention at its last Scottish conference before the general election, the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair condemned the government's handling of the report as "incompetent" and said it had decided to "blame somebody else".
The Labour Party has called for the original version of the Meat Hygiene Service report to be published following the admission by its author, Mr Bill Swann, that he was asked by the government to rewrite his first draft because his conclusions were "rather unsatisfactory".
Mr Blair said: "If I was in charge of an organisation, let alone a government, which behaved like this government, I would be ashamed. It is shown to industry groups but not to consumers, nor, we are asked to believe, to ministers. Months later people are dying of illnesses brought on by E.coli."
The government had failed to take responsibility for its actions following the publication of the report, Mr Blair added, preferring to "pass the buck" and then "fall out among themselves".
He said if Labour won the general election a food standards agency would be a "powerful" body which would investigate all areas of food production "from plough to plate".
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, Mr Major, has set about a damage limitation exercise. He played down reports that a cabinet rift had emerged between the Scottish Secretary, Mr Michael Forsyth, and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Douglas Hogg, when it became clear that a team investigating the E.coli outbreak in Scotland had not been informed of the existence of the food safety report.
Mr Major said the report did not contain anything of "startling originality" which would encourage the government to change the way the issue was dealt with.
However, Mr Forsyth was described by one of his officials at the Scottish Office as "incandescent with rage" that the department had not been made aware of report. Last night, in a move to quash reports that he was infuriated by Mr Hogg, Mr Forsyth said he was "angry" at such a suggestion.