Brexiteers spread myths about marmalade

With Donald Trump threatening to bomb Iran back into the Stone Age, the Strait of Hormuz remaining blocked and the small matter of Russia’s war on Ukraine continuing unabated, the shadow foreign secretary was focused on the key priority last week.

“Labour is now attacking the great British marmalade!” fumed Priti Patel on X. “No idea Keir is so desperate to fit in with his EU pals and unpick Brexit, he’s now looking to rename British marmalade to align with the EU. When Labour negotiates, Britain loses big time.”

Patel was reacting angrily to a report in many of the right wing papers which said that because of the government’s much-vaunted ‘Brexit reset’ with the European Union, Britain would have to rename the passé preserve as “citrus marmalade” under EU regulations.

According to the reports, under the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement, designed to ease red tape on the import and export of food goods between the UK and Europe, the former would have to sign up to regulations introduced by the bloc since Britain left in 2020. One of these allows the name ‘marmalade’ to be applied to spreads made from other fruits than citrus fruits.

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The EU directive on fruit jams, jellies and marmalades, which was updated in May 2024, states that jars should now be sold with the legal name ‘citrus marmalade’ to avoid confusing shoppers – and it is this which has now enraged Brexiteering papers and politicos while the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war.

The Daily Express actually devoted its front page to the story on Saturday, labelling it “Marmalade madness” and “completely bonkers”, lining up Reform deputy leader Richard Tice to denounce it as a “blatant betrayal of the British people and of democracy” and allowing no fewer than three Tories – Mark Francois, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith – to work themselves into a lather over it.

Patel herself, meanwhile, told the Daily Mail it showed how Labour’s EU reset was “descending into farce”, saying: “This marmalade madness is a classic example of the nonsense bureaucracy that emanates from Brussels.

“Keir Starmer is trying to take us into the EU by the back door, signing us up to heaps of rules and regulations that will disrupt British businesses. Rather than trying to reopen the battles of the Brexit years, Starmer should focus on fixing the mess he and his colleagues have made of running the country.”

And will marmalade have to be renamed? Er… no. Firstly, the SPS is primarily about food safety, animal welfare and pesticide standards, and not the marketing of store goods, so will have no impact. And secondly, as a quick glance at any supermarket shelf will show, marmalade is routinely sold as “orange marmalade” or “Seville orange marmalade” these days anyway.