Facts
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, told the October 2023 Conservative Party conference that “it is not [for] the government to decide the shape of bananas you want to eat – I just need to assure you that they are safe. So we will be dropping absurd regulations, including the one on bendy bananas.”
Under Commission regulation 2257/94 bananas are divided into different classes. Those designated as “extra class” must be flawless, class I bananas can have “slight defects in shape”, while class II bananas can have full-on “defects of shape”.
The regulation does not impose any outright bans but instead establishes grading criteria as requested by the industry. This ensures that importers, including UK wholesalers and supermarkets, have clear expectations regarding the quality of bananas they will receive when placing orders.
“Bent” bananas are not banned. Boris Johnson invented the story about the EU and the bent bananas when he was a notoriously dishonest Daily Telegraph Brussels correspondent in the 1990s.
Verdict
It is telling and even rather touching that in her eagerness to ingratiate herself with Conservative Party conference the Environment Secretary should have summoned up one of Boris Johnson’s earliest and most notorious fabrications.
We emailed Dr Thérèse Coffey’s parliamentary office offering her the chance to respond. The email was received, but no reply.
We also emailed DEFRA who suggested we reached out to CCHQ but provided the following information:
- Defra’s reform programme, which is ongoing, will continue to build on the opportunities for bespoke legislation that have come from leaving the EU.
- Defra will be working through future reforms as we look to ensure our laws work best for the UK. We will continue in our approach not to weaken our high standards
We have reached out to CCHQ, but we have not yet received a response as of the time of publishing.
Additional Note
Though in itself a trivial example, Thérèse Coffey’s fabricated claim about bent bananas is an example of a new form of political deceit especially characteristic of the Sunak administration: namely, the invention of an imaginary threat to galvanise political support and create the false impression that ministers are taking action on behalf of voters.