MIGRANT workers will still work the UK’s fields after Brexit, Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom claimed yesterday.
Addressing an agriculture conference, the one-time challenger to Theresa May said she is “absolutely committed” to ensuring temporary workers from Europe continue to power the food and farming sectors despite the Leave campaign’s commitment to reducing immigration.
As many as 60,000 people come to the UK to work as planters, pickers and packers every year and farmers have expressed concerns about changes to immigration rules.
Yesterday Leadsom told the Oxford Farming Conference she had spoken “very directly” to the Home Office about the matter.
She said: “I want to pay tribute to the many workers from Europe who contribute so much to our farming industry and rural communities.
“Access to labour is an important part of our current discussions and we’re committed to working with you to make sure you have the right people with the right skills.”
The comments came as Leadsom pledged Brexit would free the agriculture sector from EU rules which hold back production and hurt the economy.
She said dealing with “red tape” and farm inspections costs the industry an estimated £5m every year, also taking up 300,000 hours.
The changes will also affect environmental regulations. Leadsom said farmers hit by flooding would face less paperwork when claiming support for repairs and the number of standards inspections will be streamlined, with aerial photography replacing some.
She said: “For too long, a bureaucratic system which tries to meet the needs of 28 countries has held farmers back. But now, leaving the EU means we can focus on what works best for the United Kingdom.
“By cutting the red tape that comes out of Brussels, we will free our farmers to grow more, sell more and export more great British food whilst upholding our high standards for plant and animal health and welfare.”
Farmers are set to lose £3 billion in EU subsidies every year when the UK exits the union. The government has pledged to continue to provide direct payments to farmers up to 2020, but there is growing debate about what will happen in the long-term to the financial support landowners currently receive under the EU-wide Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Describing the changes, she said the three-crop rule promoting diversity would end and billboards stating that the land has benefited from EU support will no longer be shown, stating: “No more six foot EU billboards littering the landscape. No more existential debates to determine what counts as a bush, a hedge, or a tree. And no more, ridiculous, bureaucratic three-crop rule.”
However, Green MEP Molly Cato said Leadsom’s words mean “our worst fears about a post-Brexit farming landscape are being realised”.
She went on: “Rather than using the opportunities offered by Brexit to encourage a move towards a diverse and ecologically sustainable farming system, this government seem determined to dive headlong into encouraging damaging monocultures.”
LibDem Environment spokeswoman Kate Parminter said: “Andrea Leadsom has said nothing about the two most important questions facing UK farmers – whether they will still have access to the single market and what subsidies they can expect to receive post-2020.
“Warm words about wanting to increase British food exports will be meaningless if farmers are faced with a 50 per cent tariff on beef and a 30 per cent tariff on lamb to sell into their biggest export market.”
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