A European Commission ruling which will stop Scottish butchers labelling beef born and bred in the country as ''Scotch or Scottish beef'' has angered Labour MP for Dumfries Russell Brown.

Because of the shortage of slaughterhouses in Scotland, many butchers and farmers in the south west have to take their animals across the Border to Carlisle to have them killed.

Now, under the EU's Beef Labelling Scheme, which comes into effect on July 1, to let housewives know the country of origin of the produce, all animals must be born, bred and slaughtered in the same country to qualify as home produce.

Farmers who take animals to Lockerbie or Castle Douglas slaughterhouses qualify as having Scottish beef, but if they take animals to Carlisle they will not.

The EU said it was to protect names of certain traditional or regional foods throughout the member states, but Mr Brown described it as crazy, and said it discriminated against farmers and butchers living near the border.

He said he would be raising the matter with Scottish Office Agriculture Minister Lord Sewell, but admitted the Government's hands were tied by the European criteria.

''I will fight this all the way and have written to Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischer to have an exemption for those on the border.

''I fully support the beef labelling scheme but cannot understand why cattle slaughtered in Lockerbie can be called Scottish beef, but if killed in Carlisle it can't.''