The market has told us what is wanted about these American frankenfoods - the chlorine chicken and the hormone beef. We should change the law to let them in because no one will buy them.

A series of leading UK supermarkets have told Business Insider that they will never sell chlorinated chicken or hormone-injected beef from the US, in a blow to those pushing for UK food standards to be dropped in order to secure a post-Brexit trade deal with Trump.

The Trump administration has insisted that US agricultural goods must be included in any free trade agreement between the two countries.

The UK's current strict food standards prohibit such products from being imported. However, Boris Johnson's government last month opened the door to dropping the ban on the products once Britain leaves EU trade rules in 2021.

We have mentioned this point before. The more it is protested that no one in Britain wants to eat this filthy foreign muck the more insistent we are that this means - that this means, not just that it is meant more generally - that the ban must be lifted. For if no one will buy it, or in this case sell it, then the ban has no effect, does it?

It is only if you suspect that people will cheerfully chow down upon the stuff that there is a reason for a ban in the first place. And why would that some wish to have it be a justification for a ban?

We can also go one stage further. As is said, Trump will only allow a free trade deal if that food is allowed in. But as we can see, no one will sell it so no actual food will arrive. At which point we get the free trade deal without giving up anything at all - our market will still be frankenfood free and we’ll also have that trade deal.