OVER Easter I went to the Downs to spend time with sheep farmers to learn about the impact of Brexit on our farming community.

It’s a tough business, but the main thing farmers wanted to talk to me about was Brexit. I’ve always said that there are so many elements to Brexit that we will all struggle to truly understand the breadth of change that could happen as a result.

Farmers told me that Britain as part of the EU drove up standards of sheep rearing, controlling heavily the use of steroids, food quality, and living conditions. These standards go to the extent where every farmed sheep in the EU is tagged electronically and the food, medical records and other aspects of the sheep life are logged. Farmers are desperately worried that once we leave the EU and strike trade deals with other countries that our market could be flooded with meat and food that is of far lower standards. Or that they will be forced to lower standards to compete.

An example is America, where beef and sheep are routinely injected with levels of steroids and supplements which have been outlawed in the EU. Not only would this put local farmers out of business, but we as consumers would also suffer greatly.

It is extremely likely that any trade deal with America will include the ability of America to sell meat products into Britain, something that is very heavily controlled at the moment due to their use of steroids.

This is another reason why it’s so important that Hove and Portslade retains a voice that will scrutinise and challenge government as these shambolic negotiations unfold.

Peter Kyle is MP for Hove