He said: “This morally bankrupt position sits with this government. Without change, ministers will reap the consequences.
“For the 70 million people living on these islands, food security matters. It matters more given the ever-increasing geopolitical uncertainty.
“While this is shocking for me to say, the only conclusion I can come to is this government doesn’t care about British food production. Is this the same government which in its manifesto said food security is national security?”
He said farmers didn’t get money when they inherited. He said they got the farm, the business asset, and often the debt. “Any money they do get, they get when they sell.”
He said it was nonsense to say the £500m the proposals would generate would rescue the NHS. “This amount will fund the NHS for a day. It’s disingenuous for ministers to repeat this untruth,” he said.
“Despite the Chancellor calling for alternatives, and today the UK food sector went collectively to share those, I am hugely disappointed there was no response from Treasury today, no acknowledgement that this could be done better. This is the same Treasury department which admits it has not yet carried out impact assessments on its current policy.
“Let’s remember, this policy has now been challenged by farming unions and agriculture representatives from across the UK, it has been challenged by the independent Office of Budget Responsibility, by the Efra Select Committee, by tax advisers to the government, and recently the National Preparedness Committee has reminded us that UK food security is in a precarious state.
“And every single major food retailer in the UK has also called for change. Why? Because they can see what this will do to the security of the supply of their products.”
