Has food price inflation finally peaked? Figures released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) this morning reveal that food prices were up 15.4 per cent in the past 12 months, down from 15.7 per cent in the year to April. Last week’s figures from the Office of National Statistics also showed a small fall, from 19.2 per cent in March to 19.1 per cent to April. The BRC’s methodology is different from the ONS’s, not only in that it tends to produce slightly lower figures but that it also runs slightly ahead.

The inflation story has subtly changed, from being one led by energy prices to being dominated by food prices

Over the past few months, the inflation story has subtly changed, from being one led by energy prices to being dominated by food prices. Energy prices have slumped since hitting a peak in August last year. Given that energy is an important input price in food production, this alone should help to feed through to food prices.

Question is, how should government should respond to food inflation? With energy prices we had a fairly swift reaction. The government changed its policy to favour new licences for oil and gas extraction in the North Sea – a move which is now under threat from Keir Starmer’s pledge to end new licences (a policy adopted from Just Stop Oil). We also had the energy price guarantee. Energy security was moved to the top of the political agenda – ministers also cited high global oil and gas prices as a reason to press ahead with yet more wind and solar production (although without an idea as to how it intends to deal with the intermittency problem).

But high food inflation? It has not, as yet, led to an emphasis on national food security. On the contrary, the government is pressing ahead with policies on solar farms and rewilding which are exerting a negative influence on food security. A single solar farm development in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, for example, threatens to take 2,800 acres of good agricultural land out of production. Since the mid-1980s, Britain’s food self-sufficiency has fallen from around 75 per cent to 60 per cent. It seems perverse to pursue a policy of national energy security without also having one for food – especially when the former can detract from the latter.

But then there is a perfectly respectable free trade argument for saying that we should have neither. Indeed, we could have cheaper food if we weren’t so obsessed with protecting the UK agricultural industry. Leaving the EU gave Britain the chance to drop tariffs on food imports. But as with so many potential benefits from leaving the EU, the government has merely tinkered with its new-found freedoms. We have had a trade deal with Australia which should lower meat prices over 15 years as trade is gradually made freer, but that is about all. We continue to impose similar tariffs on food imports from elsewhere as we did while we were members of the EU.

It is remarkable how little the issue of trade liberalisation has cropped up during the current bout of food inflation. We complain about high food prices, which many seek to blame on Brexit – and yet we decline even to have a debate about one measure which could instantly lower food prices: a suspension of import tariffs. True, the agriculture lobby would bitterly oppose it. They would no doubt argue that trade liberalisation will ruin livelihoods and damage food security, making us more exposed to bouts of global food price inflation in the longer run. Others might say that opening the UK to global competition will force farmers to concentrate on sectors in which Britain has a comparative advantage, helping to improve efficiency and cut prices. But how odd that we refuse even to have the debate.