The Conservative Government has just overturned a promise they made not to allow farmers to use bee-harming pesticides on their fields. 

Use of the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam has just been permitted for emergency use on sugar beet seeds this year, despite an explicit pledge the Government made to maintain a ban.  Neonicotinoids are known to be extremely harmful to bees, and Britain’s bee population is already in serious decline.

Oldham’s Liberal Democrat Leader, Councillor Howard Sykes MBE, thinks the government should buzz off with their threat to one of Britain’s best-loved insects.

Commenting he said: “Conservationists are clear that the use of this pesticide will threaten not only bees, but also wildflowers and the human population itself as water courses could be contaminated.”

“It is notable that the ban on neonicotinoids which applies across Europe has been lifted here in Britain as one of the very first acts of this Conservative Government upon leaving the European Union.  ‘Taking back control’ clearly means in this case contaminating your own country, destroying the eco-system and further damaging the already fragile bee population of Britain.”