‘It’s a consultation, not a conclusion’ pledges Gove

While little more in the way of meat was put onto the bones of the UK government’s plans for postbrexit domestic agricultural policy, Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove yesterday promised that farmers would have a real opportunity to influence the debate.

Re-iterating that the much-anticipated White Paper would be released “soon,” the minister told the English NFU’S annual conference that although the document would outline the government’s plans in some detail, it was a true consultation document, put out to get feedback from the industry.

Stating that the UK’S exit from the EU offered the country the first real opportunity for almost 50 years to influence the debate on farm policy, he said it was important to get industry buy-in for the plans and promised the document would be “a consultation not a conclusion”.

Questioned on when a seasonal agricultural workers scheme would be announced to ensure continued access to migrant labour, Gove said that he understood the importance of the issue.

“Sometimes when organisations mount a campaign they have a tendency to exaggerate the importance of an issue just to make their point – I know that that is not the case here and I hope to be able to say more on this shortly,” he said.

However he conceded that while he would support such a scheme, the Home Office had a number of issues to balance.

But he assured the audience that there would be no “race to the bottom” on food production standards. “Let me be as clear as possible – we will not be signing trade deals which will mean that British producers will be undercut on animal welfare and environmental standards,” he told the three hundred delegates at the packed event.

On the UK government’s relations with the devolved administrations, he said that while the issue of the return of EU funds to the farming sector was sometimes used to political advantage, the majority of discussions between the different bodies were both constructive and pragmatic.

“And I’m sure that while the devolved administrations will actually have more power to tailor their policies to their own unique circumstances in the future we will come up with a plan which still recognises the importance of the UK internal common market.”