Newcastle North MP, Catherine McKinnell, has renewed her backing for the Government to protect our bee population, by supporting a campaign for the EU ban on bee-harming pesticides to be retained.

Neonicotinoid pesticides have been restricted across the EU since 2013 due to increasing evidence that they pose a risk to bees.

Bees are responsible for pollinating two thirds of the food we eat and they play a crucial role in supporting wider biodiversity, but the National Farmers Union has applied to the Government to lift the ban for oilseed rape crops in some parts of the country and Ministers are currently considering their application.

Catherine attended an event in Parliament yesterday (9th May), organised by campaign organisation 38 Degrees and Friends of the Earth, to hear new evidence from scientists and from a Lincolnshire farmer who had stopped using these pesticides before the ban.

The event was organised after some 125,000 38 Degrees supporters across the country signed a petition to the Environment Secretary, calling on her not to lift the neonicotinoids ban.

Catherine said:

‘Bees, and other pollinators, are critically important to our food supply and biodiversity, and it’s vital that we do more to protect the bee population which is dwindling.

‘This is an issue on which I have repeatedly lobbied Ministers – and it’s actually one of the single biggest issues on which constituents have contacted me since I became an MP.

‘I would strongly urge the Government to take on board the clear message from the British public that they don’t want bees to be put at even greater risk by lifting the ban on these pesticides.’

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