Our Food Security Is Being Ignored.
Want to understand Why?
Warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) should not be dismissed as routine economic commentary. They point to a growing and immediate risk: Britain, and therefore England, are dangerously exposed to global shocks, and our economic model leaves working people across England carrying the burden.
The IMF has made two things clear:
- First, the UK is highly vulnerable to another energy shock similar to 2021–22, when inflation exceeded 10%.
- Second, the British Government must tightly control spending or risk a “market revolt” that could drive borrowing costs even higher.
For Rachel Reeves, the British Chancellor, this creates a trap. Support households and risk market panic, or cut back and deepen hardship. This is not just about financial markets; it exposes a deeper structural failure in the UK economy, particularly the handling of energy and food security by numerous British Governments.
The simple point is that Britain remains heavily dependent on imported energy. When global prices rise, the workers across England are exposed and feel it immediately. The same is true of food. The UK produces only around 60% of the food it consumes. The rest depends on complex global supply chains that are increasingly unstable due to current wars and trade disruptions.
[Image of a split-screen graphic: one side showing a depleted British larder and the other showing a stormy global sea with cargo ships, illustrating food import dependency]
A Legacy of Strategic Failure
Previous British Governments and this Government have built an economy that assumes global markets will always deliver cheap food and energy. That assumption is now seriously breaking down. Successive governments of all political shades have followed a globalist approach that prioritised imports over resilience. Both the Conservatives and The Labour Party have followed a foolhardy approach, creating an economy that is weak and struggling to withstand pressure.
Despite warnings, the British Government has focused on a labour-market that deliberately attempted to keep wages low while relying on cheap goods to offset living costs. This is why the deliberate use of high levels of immigration has been supported by big business and the British Government. By expanding the labour supply with cheaper labour and suppressing wages, they can maintain access to cheap goods without investing in building a deeper, more resilient economy.
The result is a UK economy with limited buffers. The British Government does not stockpile energy at scale, and agricultural capacity has been reduced. This lack of resilience is a common theme across all utilities, specifically evidenced by the great fuel rip off where fuel in England is among the most expensive in the world.
Minimal Room to Maneuver
The IMF warning highlights how little room there is to respond. With national debt near 100% of GDP and borrowing costs rising, the British Government has minimal “headroom.” Even modest policy changes, such as restoring winter fuel support, require either cuts elsewhere or tax increases. That is before any major crisis hits—and we now have one on our doorstep.
For working people across England, the implications are stark. Rising energy prices feed directly into food costs. Supply disruptions push prices higher still. If British Government spending is constrained, there is less capacity to shield households from these pressures, yet protection for workers across England from fuel and food price surges is exactly what is needed.
[Image of a financial "pressure gauge" pointing into a red zone, labeled with "National Debt," "Energy Prices," and "Food Security"]
Stephen Morris, General Secretary of the Workers of England Union, said:
"The British Government needs to rebuild resilience in both energy and food systems. That means investing in domestic agriculture, increasing storage capacity, securing supply chains, and treating food and energy security as a national priority, not an afterthought. Without that shift, everyone in the UK and across England will remain exposed to global shocks, with workers paying the price."
References
(International Monetary Fund, UK Article IV Consultation, 2025; Bloomberg, “IMF Warns UK to Keep Budget in Check or Risk Market Revolt,” May 2025; Office for National Statistics, UK Food Security Data; Office for Budget Responsibility, Fiscal Outlook.)
This Article is Tagged under:
Share Article
