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Brexit, the Ghost of Britain's 'Yet to Come'

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The reality of Brexit biting down on the British economy began with the price hike of breakfast spread Marmite - but there's now big talk from Britain's biggest supermarkets over the future of the UK's food supplies.

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Hard talk meets "hard Brexit" rhetoric from the British government with big brands including Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Marks and Spencer issuing a warning that the policy simply puts British food supplies at risk.

A subsequent letter to British Broadsheet The Times, signed by National Farmers Union England, Scotland and Wales, the Ulster Farmers Union, 71 food ingredient businesses and a consortium of supermarkets states: "For our sector maintaining tariff-free access to the EU single market is a vital priority."

"It is where 75 percent of our food exports go, so all out farming and food businesses wish to achieve this outcome."

​The letter also said access to seasonal and permanent employees from overseas is "essential" for Britain's food supply chain — and a so-called "hard Brexit" could put food supplies at risk.

​Another recent report by data analysts, Mintec, also warned that "prices are likely to rise in December" and advises consumers on stocking up on seasonal staples such as raisins, butter, flour and sugar which have soared in price since 2015, incidentally, the core ingredients for many cakes. 

​But the focus for the British PM remains on curbing immigration, rather than pushing her rhetoric on remaining in the single market. However European Union leaders have made is clear in public that Britain cannot have its cake and eat it, offering zero concessions on freedom of movement if it wants to remain in the single market.

Meanwhile, UK's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has reportedly told four EU ambassadors during a special lunch that he supports freedom of movement. 

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson attends talks with Malta's Foreign Minister George Vella on Brexit in the context of Malta's upcoming presidency of the EU council, in Valletta, Malta, November 9, 2016. - Sputnik International
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The diplomats, speaking under Chatham House rule, which allows their comments to be reported but not attributed, said Mr. Johnson expressed he was personally in favor of freedom of movement — but it wasn't British government policy. Comments, a source close to the Foreign Secretary has dismissed as a "lie."

Suddenly, the rising cost of breakfast spread seems small fry compared to the prospect of a pricier Christmas and a food supply shortage while the British government continues to negotiate its future out of the European Union focusing on freedom of movement and immigration — rather than food.

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