Keir’s billionaire donor who wants to ‘rewild’ UK

LABOUR is facing fresh questions over its plans for Britain’s farmers after receiving large donations from a billionaire who wants to ‘rewild’ the country.

The party’s environment spokesman Steve Reed is receiving £155,200 this year from Tetra Pak heiress Lisbet Rausing.

His register of financial interests states that the cash, paid in monthly instalments, will ‘cover staffing and related costs for my frontbench role’. It comes after The Mail on Sunday revealed in December that Ed Miliband is receiving £233,600 this year from Ms Rausing to support his role as Labour’s climate change and net zero spokesman.

It has raised fears a Labour government may adopt Ms Rausing’s plan to ‘rewild’ Britain – turning farmland into forests and bringing back predators such as the lynx.

Ms Rausing has told of her attempts to restore nature to her Corrour estate near Fort William, including getting rid of sheep to ‘rest the land’. In 2022 one of her funds, Arcadia, gave nearly £4million to an organisation called Rewilding Europe, while last year her Ecological Restoration Fund donated £6million to The Wildlife Trusts for rewilding projects. In 2019 a scheme to restore swathes of Mid Wales, funded by £3.4million from a Rausing charity, led to a backlash which forced partner Rewilding Britain to pull out.

It comes after the Mail told how the Labour government in Wales is facing protests over a scheme that will force farmers to set aside 20 per cent of their fields for trees and wildlife.

Last night a Tory source said: ‘The shadow environment secretary claims they would back British farming, but is funded by those who want to force farmers out of business.’

Labour sources pointed out that the Rausing family had also made donations to the Conservative Party. A spokesman said Labour ‘will boost food production while protecting Britain’s precious countryside’.