IAN Blackford slammed Boris Johnson’s “chilling and pathetic” response on the impact of a trade deal with Australia, which could see Scottish farmers “driven off the land”.
It has been suggested that a proposed zero-tariff trade deal and import of Australian lamb and beef – which would only be worth about 0.01% of GDP over the next 15 years – would hit rural Scottish and Welsh farmers the hardest.
The SNP Westminster leader brought up the issue during Prime Minister’s Questions today and said that it could lead to farmers and crofters losing their livelihoods, businesses collapsing and families being “driven off the land” they have farmed for generations.
Blackford said: “Let's be very clear, if that happens this UK Tory government will be solely responsible.
“So, just for once Prime Minister, give a straight answer to these farming and crofting families who are living with this threat. Can the Prime Minister categorically rule out that his government is prepared to sign up for a trade deal that will at any future point guarantee tariff free access to Australian lamb and beef, yes or no?”
As Blackford mentioned he is a member of the crofting community, Johnson couldn’t resist taking a pop in his reply, which led to laughter from the Tory benches in the chamber and a very unimpressed looking Blackford.
He said: “Mr Speaker I know that the right honourable gentleman – I’d like to see shots of his croft by the way, humble representative of the crofting community.
READ MORE: Jim Fairlie: Post-Brexit Australian trade deal threatens Scottish farms
"May I say that I don’t think that he does justice to crofters, to farmers across the country and in Scotland as well Mr Speaker because I think he grossly underestimates their ability to do great things with our free trade deals, to export Scottish beef around the world.
“Mr Speaker, why doesn’t he believe in what the people of Scotland can do Mr Speaker? Why is he so frightened of free trade? I think it's a massive opportunity for Scotland and for the whole of the UK and he should seize it and be proud of it.”
But, Blackford hit back and called the response “chilling” and dismissive of the fears of rural communities.
He said: “To try and treat something as serious as this in the way that the government and the Prime Minister has is really quite pathetic. The fact that the Prime Minister couldn’t give a straight answer will send a real chill across Scotland’s farming communities, the UK Government led the betrayal of Scottish fishing and now the Tories are planning to throw our farmers and crofters under the Brexit bus.
READ MORE: Australia's zero-tariff demand to UK a 'huge threat' to Scottish agriculture
“This morning Martin Kennedy, President of the National Farmer Union Scotland, told ITV that farmers will feel 'seriously betrayed’ by these proposals, this deal will be the final nail in the coffin for many Scottish crofters and farmers, it will end a way of life that has endure for generations, generations Prime Minister.
“I know that many of the Prime Minister’s Tory colleagues privately agree with me and want him to pull back from this deal, so will the Prime Minister finally listen, think again and ditch a deal that will send our farmers down under?”
Johnson again dodged the question and tried to suggest that Scottish fisheries have “massive opportunities” after Brexit.
He said: “I think again he is grossly underestimating the ability of the people in this country, the agricultural communities of this country, the farming industry to make the most of free trade.
“This is a country that grew a successful and prosperousnon free trade, on exporting around the world. Our food exports are second to none, Mr Speaker, he should be proud of that, he should be celebrating that, but all he does is call for us to pull up the drawbridge and go back into the EU to be run by Brussels, that’s his manifesto and I think the people of this country have decisively rejected it.”
We previously told how the Department for Agriculture and the Department for International Trade are locked in an internal battle over the Australian trade deal – which would likely cause backlash among the farming industry in the UK.
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and Brexit minister Lord Frost are both on board with the idea – but Environment Secretary George Eustice and Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are said to have concerns over a backlash.
Farmers are said to be “seriously worried” about the consequences of the deal.
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