Portsmouth South MP supports Labour calls for a ban on the sale of fur in the UK

City MP Stephen Morgan has joined calls for a prohibition on the sale of fur in the UK, challenging the Government to reverse their opposition to such a ban.

At present there is there is no overarching legal requirement for garments and products containing animal fur to list that information on the label. EU textile labelling regulation requires an item to be labelled if it “contains non-textile parts of animal origin”, but this labelling is only if an item contains more than 80% textile by weight. An investigation by HSI found high non-compliance with this law in practice, with 87% of 163 items not carrying the label. Animal fur labelling requirements are already in place in the US and Switzerland. 85% of UK consumers expect that animal fur should be clearly marked on the label when used in the clothes and accessories they buy.

In September 2016, a YouGov poll found the British public was decisively against the fur trade, with less than 10% of people claiming it is acceptable to be able to buy and sell products containing domestic dog fur (7%), seal fur (8%), and cat fur (9%). The poll also found similar distaste for fur items from other species that can still be legally sold in Britain – only between 8 and 12% of people said that they found it acceptable to buy or sell fur from foxes (12%), mink (12%), chinchilla (9%), and raccoon dogs (8%).

In December 2017, a joint investigation by Sky and the Humane Society International (HSI) revealed that major online retailers had been selling real animal fur but labelling it as fake. The retailers including TK Maxx, Boohoo, Amazon, Groupon and Miss Bardo were all discovered to be advertising items as “faux fur” – when in fact they were made from rabbit, mink and fox. In February 2018, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee began an inquiry into the ‘transparency’ of the industry and ‘legislation around the import of fur.’

Stephen Morgan MP, said:

“Britain’s responsibility to animals doesn’t simply end at our borders, it extends globally, to the animals captured and killed to be traded into our country.

The government’s response to this issue isn’t good enough. It is clear from the hundreds of letters and emails I’ve received that the public support a ban on fur imports and that this is the right course of action to tackle the market for this cruel trade.

The Government followed Labour’s lead on the Ivory ban, they can do it here too.”