Government allows use of banned, butterfly-killing pesticides AGAIN - Butterfly Conservation

Butterfly Conservation has condemned the Government's hypocrisy after it quietly allowed the use of a banned pesticide which is proven to kill butterflies and bees without making any public announcement.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has given permission to British Sugar plc and NFU Sugar for sugar beet farmers to use neonicotinoid pesticides on crops this summer, despite the fact that their use has been officially banned since 2018.

It even comes after Government minister Mary Creagh wrote to Butterfly Conservation two years ago saying that the Government would 'change existing policies to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides that threaten vital pollinators like bees and butterflies'.

The charity is now calling on people to sign a letter to the Government asking to stick to its promise and permanently ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides - without exception.

Butterfly Conservation Head of Science Professor Richard Fox said: "This discovery is hugely disappointing and infuriating: not only has this Government allowed the use of this incredibly damaging insect poison once again, it has done so seemingly without any consultation and the ministers responsible haven't even announced it themselves. Our latest figures show that more than half the UK's butterfly species are in decline, this Government has repeatedly pledged to take this simple but vital step to ban these insect-killing chemicals, and they have failed."