Polanski calls for tighter supermarket regulation

Shoppers should not be able to buy vegetables for 7p because it is a sign of exploitation in the system, Zack Polanski said.

The Green Party leader called for tougher regulation of supermarkets as he claimed the food system was in crisis.

In a speech at the bakers’ union’s conference, Mr Polanski acknowledged there was a cost-of-living squeeze on consumers but being able to buy vegetables for pennies was “not a sign of a healthy system”.

Mr Polanski highlighted Green Party plans for free school meals for all primary and secondary pupils, support for farmers to adapt to climate change and a £15 minimum wage for all workers.

Turning to the supermarkets, he said he was not “judging” people attracted by cheap food.

He told the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union: “We do need to talk about supermarket regulation. It cannot go on as it is.

“I was thinking of a friend of mine the other day – who I’m not judging for this, I understand, but they were really excited that they were buying vegetables for 7p in one of the supermarkets.

“That is not a sign of a healthy system… someone is being exploited somewhere and if you are paying 7p for vegetables then something is not right.

“Yes, there’s a cost-of-living crisis. Yes, governments and local councils need to do everything they can to keep food prices down and make sure that people can afford to eat and, in the same breath, we need to make sure that we’re paying our workers properly and that people have proper dignity and working conditions.

“And one of the most obvious places where that exploitation is happening is in the supermarket, where a largely unregulated sector, or a sector that has not been regulated enough, has been exploiting both the workers in the supermarkets and the farmers and agricultural workers and, yes, sometimes the people who are suffering from the cost-of-living crisis too.”