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Financial support to UK farmers has to continue in a UK domestic agricultural policy post-Brexit to stimulate the economy and to reduce dependence on imports, UKIP agriculture spokesperson and MEP Stuart Agnew has said.
Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal after a meeting organised by the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) in Letterkenny on Friday night, Agnew said policies such as price insurance schemes and better use of futures markets as suggested by Defra minister of state George Eustice would be suitable elements in the UK replacement of CAP.
“Every single Tory MP I have spoken to has said that they will support agriculture in this country. The question is how and to what degree,” the sheep, poultry and tillage farmer from Norfolk said.
However, Northern Ireland MEP Martina Anderson of Sinn Fein was much more sceptical about CAP funding to farmers in NI being replaced.
Speaking at the ICSA event, she said: “I have no faith and no one that I have spoken to in the remain side has any faith whatsoever that a British government will replace those funds in the north. Our agriculture and farming industry is under serious threat.”
UK withdrawal
On the actual withdrawal of the UK from the EU, Agnew said: “It’s possible that there could be some back-sliding but I personally have been encouraged by the attitude of Theresa May, who has more or less stood back and said: ‘They want Brexit, I will deliver Brexit,’” Agnew said.
He said the Brexit vote had encouraged other member states in the EU to reassess their position within Europe. “The EU has to realise that it has gone too far into people’s lives, the whole thing has gone too deep,” he said.
Agnew added that UKIP had an opportunity to build on momentum following the UK’s vote to leave the EU as well as capitalise on instability in the Labour Party in Britain to try and become the formal opposition in the UK.
Listen to an interview with UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew below:
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