Farmers’ support for Tories is not a given, says NFU head
A heavy defeat would allow them to return to their conservative roots, just like Mrs Thatcher did
SUPPORT for the Conservative party from farmers is “not a given”, the new head of the National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned.
Tom Bradshaw said farmers were feeling let down by the Sunak administration and needed to see a change in direction to continue supporting the party. “Historically our members would have been big supporters of the Conservative Party, but many are feeling let down,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “This administration has to demonstrate that they really are different, and that they will support farming and food production. And I don’t think that is a given.”
Dozens of tractors descended on Westminster last month to protest against what they said was a risk to food security caused by cheap imports that undermine the industry.
The protests were not backed by the NFU, but Mr Bradshaw warned that farmers were “at a stage of vulnerability that we haven’t seen for generations”.
As well as the loss of direct subsidies, farmers have been grappling with prolonged wet weather, which has affected yields, as well as higher input costs since the start of the Ukraine war.
Mr Bradshaw added that the post-Brexit environmental schemes designed to replace EU-era subsidies for farmers had been imposed too quickly and there were “areas of it that I think they got wrong”.
It comes as Sir Rocco Forte, the Brexit-backing hotel tycoon, said that the Conservatives “deserve to lose the next election”. Sir Rocco has donated over £130,000 to the Conservatives over the past decade but last year vowed not to contribute to the party again.
Writing in this newspaper, Sir Rocco says that under Rishi Sunak “there is no clear sense of direction, only short-term fiddling mostly for political effect and nothing to set the country on a more positive course”.
A source close to Steve Barclay, the Environment Secretary, said: “This Conservative government backs British farmers. Ministers walked away from trade talks with Canada rather than sign a deal that was not in interests of UK beef farmers. Steve Barclay hugely values his frequent meetings with NFU leaders, members and the wider rural community.
A Government source said it should be judged on its actions, pointing to cutting taxes for workers, curbing “excessive” net zero policies and getting tough on illegal immigration.
In late 1978, my father took me to lunch with Keith Joseph at the Centre for Policy Studies, a think tank he had founded with Margaret Thatcher and the political analyst Alfred Sherman four years earlier. Joseph set out in detail the blueprint for what a Tory government would do if it came to power after the elections due in 1979. This was one of the most exciting and illuminating moments in my life.
Britain then was stricken with low growth, endemic inflation and the trade unions running roughshod over the country. The nationalised industries were generating huge losses at great cost to the taxpayer. Nothing seemed to work. The establishment consensus at the time was that Britain was a country in decline – there was nothing that could be done about it and the process simply had to be managed carefully. Sound familiar?
Mrs Thatcher duly came to power, and with Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson as successive chancellors, and Norman Tebbit reforming the labour laws, gradually turned the country around. Personal taxation was brought down. The country was put on a path delivering above par growth, which continued into the first years of Tony Blair’s government.
Labour changed little at first, but then proceeded to make dramatic changes. The Civil Service was weakened and politicised and a huge quangocracy was developed with countless new non-governmental bodies being introduced. These organisations, generally Left-leaning, have huge power and very little accountability. It was convenient for governments to delegate difficult political decisions to them so as not to take the blame themselves.
Cameron and Osborne, when they came to power, were in awe of Blair. Obsessed with New Labour-style triangulation, they moved the Conservative Party to the centre – and more Left-leaning MPs were forced upon constituencies by Central Office.
As a result the parliamentary party is no longer a Conservative Party. A large proportion of MPs are on the Left and at complete odds with the membership and the traditional Tory voter.
The first Cameron and Osborne government also introduced liberal peers into the House of Lords, making it much more difficult for Tory governments to pass legislation. New Labour’s quangocracy, meanwhile, was left largely untouched.
Today’s government is no better. Under Rishi Sunak there is no clear sense of direction, only short-term fiddling mostly for political effect and nothing to set the country on a more positive course.
Therefore, the Conservatives deserve to lose the next election.
Sadly, there isn’t much to look forward to with a Labour government. Its leadership insists it is business friendly, but if you read Angela Rayner’s “New Deal for Working People”, you will see that the party will make it more difficult for business to operate and survive.
A new approach to the economy is required: the fiscal rule, an arbitrary measure, needs to be altered or done away with. It is ridiculous to manage the economy on a five-year cycle, with every tax cut requiring a compensatory cut in expenditure; this leaves no room for investment in the future. The Office for Budget Responsibility, another fatuous invention of George Osborne, should be abolished.
This is not going to happen under this so-called Conservative government nor with the next Labour one. Perhaps things have to get even worse to make people realise radical change is needed.
A heavy defeat for the Conservatives will hopefully force them to regroup with a majority of Right-wing Conservative MPs in charge. They can develop the necessary policies to turn the country round and deliver stronger economic growth, enabling us to deal with the debt the country is encumbered with.
Just like Margaret Thatcher did 45 years ago.