Farming leaders reject calls to pressure Environment Secretary Angela Eagle to step down
Leaders of three prominent bodies representing rural and agricultural interests have rejected calls to pressure Environment Secretary Angela Eagle to step down.
National Farmers' Union president Tom Bradshaw, Country Land and Business Association president Gavin Lane and long-serving chief executive of the Tenant Farmers Association George Dunn told the Northern Farming Conference despite presiding over the Sustainble Farming Incentive "car crash" in September in which all available funding was exhausted in five hours and 48 minutes, retaining the Bridlington-born Labour politician in the role was crucial.
The leaders had heard a call for a vote of no confidence in Ms Eagle from a delegate attending the event at Hexham Auction Mart, with the aim of focusing politicians' minds following a chain of "totally lacklustre" Secretaries of State.
Farmers and landowners from Yorkshire attending the conference voiced anger and dismay over the handling of the £233 million budget which effectively left over 10,000 eligible farmers locked out of agri-environment schemes and undermined the confidence needed to invest.
Mr Lane said while he had no confidence in Ms Eagle, who has served as an MP since 1992, he thought she was "as good as any", adding it was vital organisations such as the CLA backed the Environment Secretary to convey concerns to the Cabinet.
He added: "Our gripe is not it Defra, it is with the Treasury. It's the undervaluing of Defra's department which is why we're not getting the money we need from the Treasury."
Mr Dunn said over the last three decades he had worked with Environment Secretaries "of all colours" and had liked George Eustice and Michael Gove the most. He said: "The rest I could take or leave, but Angela Eagle does have a semblance of understanding of what the issues are. She is pragmatic, wants to make a change and I'm prepared to work with her.
"Our job is to get the best out of the political system that we've got, not to call for someone's resignation, because who's going tto come next?"
Mr Bradshaw said the Ulster Farmers Union had called for the resignation of the province's farming minister in August and it had proved "an absolute disaster".
He said: "It may well land well in this room if we say we're going tto do this, but once you're trying to influence government... you're out the room. It doesn't increase our influence and if they win the next election we're not in the room.
"The current Secretary of State is incredibly well connected across government, she understands how to be a Secretary of State, how to be a minister, has had time in the farming role so she has learnt the brief. I think we could do a lot worse than the Scretary of State we've got at the moment.
"There may be people who have previously let us down, SFI has been disastrous. The disaster is that there is no enough money. I don't think we can say that is all down to her."