The Tories have fired the first shots in the 2017 election battle for rural
Scotland, with shadow farming spokesman Peter Chapman accusing rural minister Fergus Ewing of having “a lack of vision” for the countryside when the UK leaves the EU.
The SNP immediately retorted with a claim that the Conservative Party was trying to whitewash over the uncertainty over their plans for a “rock hard” Brexit.
In a letter to Mr Ewing, Mr Chapman claimed that nearly a year on from the vote to leave the EU, the Scottish Government appeared to have made no preparations for the “huge opportunity” Brexit presented for farming and fishing communities.
Mr Chapman, who is also a farmer, added that a new system of rules and regulations that could work in Scotland’s interests could be devised to replace the Common Agricultural Policy and the Common Fisheries Policy.
“It is almost a year since the UK voted to leave the European Union, including the bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy and the disastrous Common
Fisheries Policy,” he wrote.
“I cannot understand why, over the past 10 months, the Scottish
Government appears to have made no preparations for what is a huge opportunity for our farming and fishing communities.
“Industry experts have made it perfectly clear that if the opportunities are grasped then there is the potential to build systems that will deliver for our rural economy over the long term.
“I hope that in the coming months the SNP will work for the benefit of our rural communities and help deliver on the undoubted opportunities from leaving the EU.”
In response, Mr Ewing said the Scottish Tories would be better served writing to their UK counterparts asking for clarity on funding after 2019 and supporting the fight to get £190 million of convergence funding returned from Westminster to Scottish farmers and crofters.
He added: “With the potential loss of tariff-free access to the single market, continued uncertainty over the right of thousands of rural workers from the EU to stay in Scotland and the loss of half a billion pounds’ support for our rural economy, it is clear that Scotland’s rural businesses and communities will pay a high price if we are forced to leave the EU with the rest of the UK.”
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
