BENDY bananas and knobbly fruit and vegetables could be for the chop again after Spanish MEPs began moves to get the EU to re-impose its ban on wonky fruit and veg.

The Spanish amendments, if passed, could spell misery for local farmers, whose fruit and veg might not necessarily pass a beauty contest but whose flavour and quality is second to none.

Last July the rules were relaxed, but now Spanish MEPs are demanding that the ludicrous rules are reintroduced.

Food is food, no matter what it looks like. To try to stop stores selling perfectly decent food simply because of its shape or size is morally unjustifi-able, especially when we are worried about global food supplies and still in the mouth of an economic downturn.

These rules were the butt of jokes for the European Commission and I thought common sense had finally prevailed when they relaxed the rules last July. Local farmers were grateful too, as it meant they could sell perfectly good and often better quality produce.

If the Spanish MEPs get their way, we could see the reintroduction of the ludicrous bendy banana rules.

Needless to say, Conservatives will be bitterly opposing the move and I will be campaigning on behalf of our local farmers.

At the end of the day it’s consumers who will decide what they want. Let the market decide, not the European Parliament.

Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber, Beechwood Farm, Scotton, North Yorkshire.