Labour has promised to reduce imports that undercut British farmers and to form a closer trading relationship with the EU.
Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference, shadow farming minister Daniel Zeichner said Labour would make the environmental land management scheme work effectively and take action on flooding, The Guardian reported.
According to NFU polling, 36% of members intend to vote Labour, while 32% plan to vote Conservative – a significant difference to the 2019 election when Labour was polled at 20% among farmers and 58% for Conservative.
Last Tuesday, prime minister Rishi Sunak promised large grants for farmers and said he “has their back”. He added: “We are absolutely committed to supporting you and making sure that you are not undercut.”
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However, Zeichner said: “A Labour government will resolutely back British farmers, reducing our reliance on insecure imports, supporting high quality, local produce for consumers and ending the shameful new reality of those empty supermarket shelves.”
He added that under the party’s food security plan, “Labour will lower the red tape farmers face at our borders, for both imports and exports”.
“Ministers have left farmers too vulnerable to low quality imports that undercut our people,” Zeichner added.
Earlier this year, the NFU warned the government’s changes to the environmental land management schemes could be “too little, too late.”
Farming minister Mark Spencer said changes would include a Sustainable Farming Incentive ‘Management Payment’ which could consist of up to an additional £1,000 per year, covering up to 50 hectares of land entered into the scheme
While NFU vice president David Exwood said his was welcome, it “risks being too little too late, especially given the current economic challenges we are experiencing and the rapid erosion of direct payments”.
Spencer said he would be “pitching very hard” to Sunak to raise the farming payments budget from £2.4bn a year, however Zeichner said it would be “irresponsible” to increase the payment without knowing the extent of its effects on the public amid the cost-of-living crisis.
However, he said Labour would “fix” the schemes to end the underspend and also publish their outcomes.
