Fergus Ewing has accused Theresa May’s deputy, Damian Green, of telling her the Scottish Government is “on the verge of declaring war over support for hill farmers”. Rural Economy Secretary Ewing reported Green’s alleged comments to a packed audience at AgriScot on Wednesday but, when contacted by Farmers Journal Scotland, First Secretary of State Green’s office said they were “categorically untrue”.

However, speaking at the launch of AHDB’s Horizon report on the impact of Brexit in Scotland Fergus Ewing said hill farmers are the closest to the fire when it comes to farm support payments post-Brexit. He added that, after meeting Michael Gove 10 days ago, he was still unsure whether the UK would remain in the Common Agricultural Policy during the transition period. “The onus is on Gove to say what will happen after Brexit,” Ewing said. “He has never said anything to date about the importance of farming as food producers.”

In the same week as the EU withdrawal bill was put to parliament, Ewing called on the UK government to give answers sooner rather than later on Brexit issues such as labour, trade and regulatory barriers to trade.

“A hard Brexit presents a potentially catastrophic scenario. We are concerned about the loss of market access for lamb to the EU. And conversely, we are concerned about the UK receiving more imports from places like South America.”

In fact, in one of three scenarios presented by the AHDB report, sheep farmers in Scotland stand to lose approximately 200% of their income post-Brexit (see page 10).

If LFASS payments were to be discontinued, Ewing believes that people would cease farming in the Highlands, potentially making the area less attractive to tourists. The NFUS president agreed but made the point that farm support post-Brexit cannot be solely reliant on environmental payments.

“We need to reward those taking the risk,” he told those attending an NFUS panel discussion at AgriScot. “Payments have to be based on ‘deliverability’. Food production and environmental things should not be mutually exclusive. We are green already; 15% of our best land should be not be disadvantaged because of greening or environmental ask. That is our engine house.”