Poll says farmers favour exit

The farming community in east Kent largely favours Brexit, according to a straw poll at a recent meeting.

One of those who thinks the industry would be better off out of the EU is chair of the local branch of the NFU, Edward Hulme, whose family runs four farms in Canterbury, Wingham and Ash.

He said: “We need to go back to the halcyon days of farming because the Brussels experiment isn’t working. Farms need foreign workers, who are fantastic, but we used to have a perfectly good system called the Student Agriculture Workers Scheme.

“They were given a visa for the season and when it was over, you took them to the port and put them on a boat. But now they can stay and the scheme has been dismantled.” At the recent meeting of farmers, a show of 100 hands revealed 58% in favour of leaving the EU and 38% against, with the remainder undecided.

Mr Hulme said that EU subsidies had kept food prices low but under Brexit those grants would continue until 2020. He admitted that prices could rise slightly afterwards but says it is a cost worth paying for better quality British produce, rather than the “very base level” of farming practice he claims are set by the EU.

On cross-channel trade, he said: “Are the French really going to be telling us they will be saying no to our £200 million of lamb exports when they want to sell us £690 million of their wine? I don’t think so.

“We are burdened with EU rules and regulations, fork out millions for 33,000 civil servants in Brussels and don’t need them telling us what to do any more.”