Bluetongue virus and avian flu present nightmare scenario for UK if action not taken

My journey into politics as a veterinary surgeon started from my experiences working on the frontline in the 2001 Foot and Mouth Crisis supervising some of the tragic animal culls. Animal disease outbreaks are not a past concern, but a present reality. The recent National Audit Office's (NAO) "Resilience to animal disease outbreaks" report reaffirmed this unequivocally, saying DEFRA and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) will not be able to respond to severe disease outbreaks, or multiple disease outbreaks taking place concurrently.

With Bluetongue Virus and Avian Influenza here in the UK, and Foot and Mouth Disease and African Swine Fever present in Europe this year, this nightmare scenario is a very real possibility if action is not taken, as are the threats to animal and human health, our economy, and the wider agri-food industry if the Government do not respond.

These risks are only further heightened by the Government's ineffective approach to illegal meat imports. Nearly as much of the illegal meat seized at our borders last year has been seized already between just January and April in 2025, leaving us at the mercy of huge amounts of potentially infected meat slipping into the UK.

The NAO have repeatedly made clear our biosecurity requires a complete redevelopment of the APHA's Weybridge Headquarters. The situation has only got more precarious. The NAO's June 2025 report startlingly revealed that the risk of the Weybridge site failing is currently at its maximum rating, spelling a catastrophe if more severe threats hit our shores.

The Government are more than aware of this terrifying picture for UK biosecurity, given I have explicitly impressed this on them seventeen times in Parliament since July last year, and the mission critical need for the APHA redevelopment. While now is better than never to confirm that they will be providing an extra £1billion to fund its redevelopment, it should never have taken this long.

We Conservatives began this crucial work with £1.2billion of funding in 2020. It is only right, now the baton has been handed over, that Labour do not drop it. They should, however, admit that it still leaves us £200million short of the NAO's estimate of the total £2.8billion required for full redevelopment. A biosecurity disaster is waiting on their watch unless the Government fires on all
cylinders and makes progress now. Our famers, our animal and human health and welfare, and our nation, cannot wait a moment longer.