Boris Johnson’s hopes of surviving as prime minister have been hit hard after farmers and conservationists denounced his government’s post-Brexit food strategy as a disaster for rural people – less than two weeks before key rural elections.
In an interview with the Observer, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, Minet Butters, said ambitious proposals to help farmers increase food production, first presented last year by government food king Henry Dimbleby, had been “boned” in a new policy document and meant that farmers would not be able to produce food at an affordable price.
Butters said she told the prime minister on Friday that farmers – including those in the western part of Tiverton and Honiton, where important by-elections will be held on June 23 – are outraged by Brexit politicians who believe it will make them poorer and leave them unable to compete with foreign producers.
The by-elections caused by the resignation of Tory MP Neil Parish to watch pornography on his municipal phone are seen as crucial to Boris Johnson’s chances of remaining on Downing Street after he suffered a brutal riot from 148 Tory MPs in a vote in trust last week.
The Liberal Democrats are trying to eliminate the Tory majority of 24,239 in the place that would be one of the biggest upheavals in the midterm elections in recent times. If the Conservatives lose the election to the Liberal Democrats and the Labor Party returns Wakefield from them on the same day, many Tory MPs believe Johnson will not be able to survive as prime minister.
Last night, farmers in the West Bank’s headquarters said the farming community would vote en masse against the Tories. This was because they faced a combination of loss of subsidy income and pressure to prioritize the environment over food production when the country needed to become more self-sufficient in food.
A large-scale rural uprising during the midterm elections will deepen the prime minister’s concerns about Partygate and the cost of living crisis, which are already hitting Tory support.
Commenting on the government’s new food strategy, which expired at the Guardian on Friday, Butters said she was “pleased to see the commitment to food security”, but added that the original strategy was “bare to the bone” and that no plan remained. how to achieve your common goals.
“We want to eat more British and more local food, but again I’m just asking how,” she said.
Butters said she met with Johnson on Friday and told him that farmers want to be helped to produce food as well as help the environment. “I said the farmers in Tiverton wanted to see that. Farmers want the details. ” She said there was no clear policy at the moment.
Boris Johnson meets with voters at the Royal Cornwall Show. Photo: Andrew Parsons CCHQ / Parsons Media
The Ministry of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it would not comment on the strategy document until it is published on Monday.
Farmers are becoming increasingly frustrated as they have been promised that their previous EU subsidies will be replaced entirely after Brexit. Instead, they are being phased out, with basic payments reduced by 20% this year. In addition, they say the scheme designed to pay them for adopting green policies, such as planting new trees and hedges and building new lakes (known as re-wildings), remains unclear and confusing.
Jake Fiennes, a sustainable farmer and author of Land Healer: How Agriculture Can Save the UK Countryside, said: “This is a rather weak 27-page document that says nothing. I see the agricultural sector disappointed, I see that environmental ambitions have been reduced, I see a very short-sighted point of view. Food security and environmental sustainability are the challenges of this generation and it is so depressing. “
John Wescott, a beef and sheep farmer in Bampton, near Tiverton, told the Observer that “most farmers will vote against the Conservatives not because they want to in the long run, but because their policies are doing nothing to help and harm them.” their business. “
Tim Farren, a former Liberal Democrat leader and now a party spokesman for rural affairs, described the new strategy as “timid” and “no real change”.
Henry Dimbleby was commissioned by the government to conduct a review to address the obesity crisis and the availability of healthy food. He was also asked to show how this can be done in an environmentally friendly way.
But his ambitious recommendations, including extending free school meals, a 30% reduction in meat and dairy consumption and providing strong protection to British farmers by not undermining them in trade agreements with other countries, were not accepted.
His method was hailed by organic farmers as a plan to make Britain self-sufficient in food without compromising the environment and to help farmers switch from intensive farming.
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