Ewing slams Gove’s plans for post-brexit farm policy
While the release in Westminster yesterday of the UK Agriculture Bill which sets the scene for post-brexit farm policy met with mixed reviews from the farming industry and other countryside bodies, the Scottish Government’s response was a clear-cut “thumbs down”.
While most of the contents of the bill revealed by Defra Secretary of State Michael Gove apply to farming policy in England, it also included elements of an overarching Uk-wide framework covering a number of issues.
But, despite being sold by the UK government as a landmark bill which laid the foundations for a green Brexit and a “cleaner and healthier environment for future generations” – with support focused on “public money for public goods” – Scotland’s rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing, said the bill represented a missed opportunity for the UK government to deliver on promises made during the EU referendum.
“The bill completely fails to meet the key tests of delivering on promises made to Scotland, respecting the devolved settlements, and righting longstanding issues,” said Ewing.
He said that no guarantee had been included that Scottish farmers would continue to receive at least the same level of funding as they currently did in the event of Brexit – and warned that, as drafted, the bill could potentially see the Scottish Parliament unable to continue to provide coupled support for active beef and sheep farmers and less favoured area support (LFASS) payments for the hills and uplands.
Expressing “serious concerns” that the UK government could impose unwanted policies and rules on Scottish farmers in areas of devolved competency Ewing said :“Unless and until the attempts to grab key powers that impact on farming and food production are addressed and revised, we
are clear that we cannot and will not bring forward legislative consent motions for primary Brexit legislation, such as this, until the Sewel Convention is made operable again.”
In Westminster for the launch, NFU Scotland president Andrew Mccornick said that the bill took Scottish agriculture one step further towards its post-brexit future.
Promising to go over the details of the highly complex legislation with a finetooth comb, he said that his organisation remained “crystal clear” that the interests of Scottish agriculture would be best served by Scotland setting its own future policy.
He also said that preserving or enhancing future funding levels for Scottish agriculture remained a red line issue for the union and that he wanted reassurance on how Scotland’s share of Uk-wide farm funding would be determined and delivered, commenting: “That must take the review of convergence funding into consideration” While the bill provided no clarity
on how the government intend to fund its policy beyond the existing commitment to maintain current levels of expenditure to 2022, Mccornick said that early reading indicated that funding would sit at a Defra level, ring-fenced to agriculture.
But he stressed that the flexibility which allowed Scotland to run coupled support and less favoured areas support schemes had to be maintained.
English NFU president Minette Batters said that food and farming should have been at the centre of policy: “A future agricultural policy that ignores food production will be damaging for farmers and the public alike.
“The public demand and deserve safe, high-quality, traceable affordable food, whatever their income. And moreover they want British farms to supply that food.”
She also said that it would be foolhardy for the government to embark on its current path without knowing trading environment in which it would operate.
“A free and frictionless trade deal with our biggest trading partner, the EU, is absolutely critical to the farming industry,” she said.