Response to Halal/Kosher meat opponents

Farm animals should be treated humanely, though we should do what we can to respect the practises and traditions of religious minorities wherever feasible. That 80% of Halal meat in the UK is pre-stunned before slaughter demonstrates that it is potentially possible for animal welfare standards and religious practices to coexist. 

Both Jewish and Islamic law prohibits unnecessary suffering and requires that an animal intended for food must be healthy and uninjured at the time of slaughter. However, it is also believed that certain methods of stunning render an animal unfit under Kosher or Halal laws. This highlights that more work is needed to bridge the gap between animal welfare and respect for religious adherence. 

Mistreatment in abattoirs must be prevented across the board, and improving standards must be a collective effort rather than one which targets specific groups. The Government must work constructively with religious communities to address animal welfare concerns while respecting the sensitivities of religious adherents. 

While this work is ongoing, my Liberal Democrat parliamentary colleagues and I also support the introduction of clear labelling for meat from religious slaughter where pre-stunning has not been used. Transparency enables consumers to make informed choices about the food they purchase, reducing unnecessary oversupply beyond the communities for whom such meat is intended. 

My party and I have a strong track record of campaigning for animal welfare; from banning battery-caged hens to successfully blocking the former Conservative Government’s attempts to reintroduce fox hunting. We continue to advocate policies which protect animals as sentient beings and ensure humane treatment throughout farming and food production. 

At our Spring Conference in 2025, Liberal Democrats passed a motion calling for improved consumer choice through clear labelling, similar to the successful egg labelling scheme,  which provides details on the locality in which an animal was reared, the conditions it was kept in, the method of slaughter, and the environmental impact of the product. This approach would provide consumers with the necessary information to make ethical and informed purchasing decisions.