Rishi Sunak has told farmers “I have your back”, at the National Farmers Union conference, as he promised to “change the culture” in government around farming.
Sunak was the first prime minister to address the NFU conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, and took three Defra ministers with him to put the Conservative case to farmers.
He committed to improving food security in the UK and expressed concerns about low self-sufficiency in “things like tomatoes, pears, plums, lettuces and apples”. Sunak also said he had “once milked a cow”.He took two questions from the audience. Replying to one farmer, Hannah, from Hertfordshire, he admitted that allowing farmers to trade with the EU was a “work in progress”.
He said: “We are working very hard with individual countries to ease all those areas in which there are differences. I’ll be totally honest, it’s a work in progress.”
Farmers have been critical of trade deals undercutting their business, including the free trade deal with Australia and the prospect of importing Canadian pork and Mexican beef. Sunak said: “We are absolutely committed to supporting you and making sure that you are not undercut.”
He expressed sympathy for those who had been affected by recent floods that had wiped out thousands of acres of crops. “It’s always devastating when that happens,” he said.
Recent polling from the Country Land and Business Association found that people in rural areas are defecting to Labour in huge numbers, with the party’s share of the vote having climbed to 37%, up 17 points on the 2019 general election result, and the Conservatives’ share falling 25 points to 34%.
More respondents in the poll believe Labour understands and respects rural communities and the rural way of life than the Conservatives (28% v 25%). The Conservatives hold 96 of the 100 most rural seats but face losing more than half to Labour and the Liberal Democrats, including those of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Jeremy Hunt and Thérèse Coffey.
Minette Batters, leading her last NFU conference as president, said the farming vote was still up for grabs. She asked for Brexit-related labour problems to be solved.
Which party will introduce a minimum five years seasonal workers scheme and recognise that we need more people if we’re to continue providing the raw ingredients for the country’s largest manufacturing sector?” she asked. “Which party will formally commit to sourcing more food from British farms? For our schools, hospitals, our military?” She also asked for import animal welfare standards to meet those mandated in the UK.
Batters alluded to protests in Wales, where farmers have been blockading roads with their tractors over plans to force them to plant 10% of their land with trees. She said: “I have watched and listened as the Welsh government try and deny our members and their children the farming futures they had planned.”
She criticised the trend for rewilding farms. “Some celebrities are buying land and taking it out of production to greenwash other parts of their lifestyle. We must see changes this year to redress the imbalance between environment and food production in government policy before many more farms just simply disappear,” she said, adding that the idea of lab-grown meat was an “ill-informed utopia”.