Keir Starmer has just betrayed British farmers by submitting to Donald Trump

Campaigners have long been concerned that the UK's high food standards could be on the negotiating table in trade talks with the US in exchange for lower tariffs.

The UK team has agreed to give way on demands for greater access to UK markets for American food and agriculture products imported into Britain.

It has previously been a red line for the UK because the US allows chlorinated chicken and hormone-injected beef, whereas the UK does not, because of concerns over lower welfare standards and poorer hygiene.

The UK will reduce tariffs on US products including beef and ethanol, which US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said would create five billion dollars in "opportunity for American exports".

The agreement on beef provides a tariff-free quota for 13,000 tonnes of US exports, but the UK Government said this would involve no reduction in food standards.

The USA said the trade deal will "exponentially increase export of US beef" to the UK. But a Government source has been quick to reassure Britons that imports of hormone treated beef or chlorinated chicken will remain illegal.

They add that for the first time ever, this deal will open up exclusive access for UK beef farmers to the US market.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: "The inclusion of a significant volume of bioethanol in the deal raises concerns for British arable farmers. We'll be engaging closely with our members to help them understand and prepare for the potential impact.

"Our biggest concern is that two agricultural sectors have been singled out to shoulder the heavy burden of the removal of tariffs for other industries in the economy. While we understand this, we also know that today is the start, not the end, of a process and UK agriculture cannot continue to shoulder such imbalances in future negotiations."

Concessions in agriculture risk provoking a huge backlash, especially from farmers who already feel undercut by the free trade deals struck with Australia and New Zealand.

Beef imports from Australia to the UK rose threefold following the implementation of the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement that increased market access for beef.

There are clear differences between UK and American environmental and animal welfare production.

In the UK, various pesticides and herbicides that are harmful to human and environmental health, such as neonicotinoids, paraquat, and atrazine, are banned. Across the pond, many banned chemicals are allowed.

The preventative use of antibiotics for livestock is restricted to combat antibiotic resistance across Britain's green and pleasant lands. In the US? American farmers use five times more antibiotics than UK farmers.

Battery cages for laying hens, sow stalls for pigs and veal crates are all banned in the UK. Sow stalls and battery cages are allowed in many of the food exporting states across the Atlantic.

Compassion in World Farming warned if "a product is too cruel to produce here, it must also be too cruel to import".

The government has promised to uphold the UK's food, environmental and animal welfare standards in trade negotiations.

Animal welfare groups wanted Sir Keir Starmer to show farmers and consumers that the country's high environmental standards are not up for negotiation.

Labour committed not to undermine UK farmers in trade deals but some could see the deal struck today as another broken pledge.