A Government commitment to farmer funding should come ahead of any new agriculture policy detail, according to the SNP’s Westminster rural spokesman Calum Kerr.
Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference where he was standing in for Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing, Mr Kerr challenged the Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom and Defra Minister George Eustice to ‘come clean’ on their post-Brexit approach to funding.
“They can say they’ll come up with a scheme that’s fit for purpose, that’s more suited to our requirements but if they won’t commit to a level of funding – if it’s 10% of what we get today – what would that mean for the rural economy? It would be an utter disaster,” Mr Kerr said.
“They need to talk far more openly about the level of funding . We need to question the reason for that. If they won’t say they’ll maintain the level of funding, maybe George [Eustice] assertion that they’re being listened to around the Cabinet table isn’t quite as surefooted as he made it out to be.
“That is the fear.”
He added he had yet to meet a farmer who would like to do without income support and called for firm commitment to farm funding post 2020.
“We need to do more around innovation and environmental management but we should maintain direct payments,” he said.
Mr Kerr also criticised Defra for failing to deliver on the promise to reallocate the convergence uplift, the extra £180million of CAP monies which were allocated to the UK from the EU to bring Scotland’s per hectare subsidy support figure more in line with the European average.
Scottish farm leaders and the SNP Government have long disputed the fairness of the money’s distribution and Defra promised a review of the deal by the end of 2016.
Mr Kerr said: “They’re overdue on that. Brexit is not an excuse to fail to deliver on a fair allocation.”
Both Mrs Leadsom and Mr Eustice have refused to commit to funding levels for agriculture after 2020. Mr Eustice told the conference that a move away from direct payments was required.
