Government face farming fall-out over trade deals
FARMING bodies and opposition politicians in Wales have joined forces to condemn recent policy decisions and trade deals by the UK Government.
And after the shock by-election defeat for the Conservatives in Shropshire, the Liberal Democrats are forecasting a revival in fortunes in rural areas.
They point to a new poll out in Farmers Weekly showing support for the Conservatives dropping from 72 per cent in 2020 to 56 per cent this year among farmers. Meanwhile the Lib-Dems have almost doubled their vote in the same period going from 9 per cent to 17 per cent.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds said: “Our farmers have spent generations growing food and managing our countryside. They are key allies in the fight to tackle the climate emergency and to recover nature, all while continuing to produce high quality food for our plates.
“Yet this Conservative Government is continuously ignoring our farmers and in many cases actively making life more difficult for them.”
“Farmers throughout the UK and Wales are quite rightly fed up of being taken for granted by the Conservative Party while they sell them down the river for quick trade deals designed to benefit big bankers in the city with little regard for rural communities.”
After criticism of the recent free trade deals with the USA and New Zealand, news that the UK-Australia trade has been finalised brought more condemnation.
NFU Cymru president John Davies said NFU Cymru’s fears had been realised.
“We will, of course, analyse the detail in full but on the face of it, there do not seem to be any tangible benefits that will deliver for Wales’ family farms,” he said.
“NFU Cymru is ambitious for the future of food production here in Wales, but we expect to be able to compete on a level playing field and this deal does not deliver that.
Wales Farmer
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