YP Comment: Farmers require Brexit clarity

Yet, since last June’s referendum, Theresa May’s government appears to have paid scant regard to the importance of this issue or how the infamous Rural Payments Agency, the quango which manages subsidies at present, becomes fit for purpose.

This is worrying. Farmers are the backbone of the economy and had every right to expect more clarity from Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom. Instead the Brexit-supporting minister, who came to public prominence during the referendum, has been one of Mrs May’s more invisible ministers.

With a House of Lords committee publishing a report today on the potential opportunities, and pitfalls, for agriculture, Ministers need to start outlining their intentions. If they leave it until March 2019 when Britain is due to leave the EU, it will be too late – farmers require both continuity, and clarity, if they’re to have any chance of meeting the country’s food requirements. They also need access to export markets.

Yet they cannot be expected to plan for the future, and invest in the necessary machinery and so on, if the Government is unable, or not willing, to explain how the industry will function when the UK is free from the Common Agricultural Policy.

The traditional party of the countryside, the Conservatives should be making a far more positive case for agriculture rather than hoping for the best.