Prime Minister squanders opportunity to connect with the farming community

However, once again the PM squandered that opportunity. Instead he showed himself to be out of touch with the harsh realities that farmers face in regions like Yorkshire.

Mr Sunak said: “It is an incredible thing you do, you don’t do it for the money, for sure.”

But the reality is that farmers run businesses and they need to be profitable in order for them to be sustainable, as the NFU’s president Minette Batters rightly pointed out.

The sector continues to face challenges from the weather and soaring costs to the switch from EU-era subsidies and sustainable farming.

Protests by farmers across mainland Europe should be a warning sign for the PM and his Government. In fact, it was only this weekend that around 20 tractors parked outside a Tesco in Kent to raise awareness of a threat to food security.

While the PM looked to reassure farmers that the Tories would not take food security for granted, the support that has been pledged is unlikely to help many farmers in the here and now.

Farmers have already been let down by the unfavourable trade deals that Boris Johnson’s government struck with Australia and New Zealand.

The Conservatives have historically been seen as the party of the countryside. That is no longer the case.

While Sir Keir Starmer has brought in significant changes that makes Labour a more palatable proposition to the electorate, he and his party have been handed an open goal by the failure of the Government to deliver for rural areas.