TWO THOUSAND rural workers have joined forces to sue the Government, alleging gross negligence in its handling of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, The Times has learnt.

Lawyers heading the class action will seek full diclosure of official documents at the High Court next month.

They believe that the case is so strong that they will be able to seek damages of up to £2 billion from the Government if more litigants join the action in the new year.

The lawsuit will claim that the Government did not act quickly enough to stop the movement of cloven-hooved animals within Britain after the first outbreak on February 20, 2001. A European directive was issued the next day ordering a halt to the movement of cows, pigs and sheep — both to Europe and within the UK.

An official report at the time concluded that ministers were too slow in their response after the first few cases had been diagnosed.

The class action will say that the Government was negligent because it acted immediately to stop the export of animals to Europe, but waited two days before banning animal movement within Britain. It will argue that the delay contributed to the spread of the disease.

“After detailed research, we have found that the UK Government broke European law by failing to stop animal movements on February 21 within the UK, as they were ordered to do by the European Commission,” Stephen Alexander, a partner in Class Law Solicitors, which is running the lawsuit, said. “There is no doubt that had they acted in accordance with the directive, the disease would not have spread in the way that it did.”

Mass slaughter led to the loss of almost seven million animals and compensation to farmers of £1.3 billion. The crisis is estimated to have cost the economy £8 billion.

Rural traders were angry that the Government refused to acknowledge their losses while it compensated farmers.

One of the claimants, Bill Kneen, 52, a stevedore from Lincoln, almost lost his livelihood because of foot-and-mouth, even though his business has no direct contact with animals.

His firm specialises in loading grain on to ships for export, unloading imported animal feed and unloading and bagging fertiliser. “All the activities disappeared overnight after the first outbreak,” he said. “Farmers did not want to receive any products because of cross-contamination and grain exports went because nobody wanted to buy UK grain in case it carried foot-and-mouth. We lost 60 per cent of our business overnight.”

Mr Kneen estimates his losses at £600,000. He has paid £750 to join the class action in the hope of recovering his losses plus interest. Other litigants include farmers who were not compensated because none of their livestock were slaughtered to the owners of hotels, guesthouses and riding schools and makers of equestrian equipment. They pay a fee to join the action, on a sliding scale linked to the size of their claim. For claims of up to £10,000, they contribute £150; for up to £50,000, it is £250; and so on up to £2,000 for claims of more than £1 million.

Next month, lawyers will ask the High Court to order the Government to disclose memos and directives issued in the immediate aftermath of the first outbreak. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said last night: “Because we are at a pre-action protocol stage, and litigation is therefore likely, we cannot comment on matters likely to come before the court.”

Last year Mr Alexander won compensation for British customers of Sotheby’s and Christie’s in the fallout of the price-fixing scandal.

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