‘FIGHT back or resign”, Ian Blackford challenged Alister Jack as tensions over Tory trade deals increased.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has warned a UK-Australian trade deal could put hundreds of cattle and sheep breeders out of business.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss offered her Australian counterpart terms under which both countries would phase out taxes on imports over 15 years. There’s been opposition from the Scottish and Welsh governments over fears that some farms will go under, with Northern Ireland’s Agriculture Minister also saying he’s “strongly opposed” to axing tariffs and quotas.

READ MORE: Australia's zero-tariff demand to UK a 'huge threat' to Scottish agriculture

Just 0.15% of Australian beef exports currently come to the UK, along with 14% of the country’s sheep meat. However, it’s feared the new deal will allow massive Australian operators to undercut smaller Scottish farms and NFU Scotland chief executive Scott Walker has said: “This strikes us as being all about an ideology rather than what is in the best interest of Scottish farmers and crofters.”

Today Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Blackford – himself a crofter – has urged Scottish Secretary Jack to break what he calls a “deafening silence” on the matter and oppose the deal. In a letter, Blackford told Jack: “In February of this year, you told the AGM of the National Farmers Union of Scotland that ‘I can assure you that your voice is heard at the very highest levels of the United Kingdom Government. This helps to make sure that UK Government policy in agriculture continues to benefit Scotland’. If this statement is to have any effect, relevance or truth, then it now falls on you to stand by Scotland’s farmers and crofters and robustly oppose a deal that threatens to put them out of business.

“I urge you to break your deafening silence on this crucial issue and fight back against this damaging deal. That means opposing any trade deal that will, at any future point, grant tariff-free, zero quota access to Australian lamb and beef. Given the seriousness and scale of this issue for Scotland’s farmers and crofters, it is also clear that your only credible option is to make clear that this is a resigning matter should your views be ignored in Cabinet.”

Australia’s biggest beef exporter has predicted it could increase UK sales by tenfold under a zero tariff, zero quota trade deal of the kind being proposed by the Tory Government. Separately, Downing Street has refused to rule out reducing standards to allow hormone beef imports. On Friday, Walker warned: “An Australian Free Trade (FTA) agreement, with no tariffs or quotas on sensitive products, will put some Scottish farmers and crofters out of business and set a precedent that all other countries looking for free access to the UK market in the future will be desperate to replicate.

“No consultation has been had with NFU Scotland on such a proposal and any such transition would be wholly unacceptable to Scottish farmers and crofters. Regardless of whether unfettered access on sensitive products like beef or lamb is offered now or in 15 years’ time, the impact on family farms would be devastating.”

Yesterday a UK Government source said: “It is clear from Ian Blackford’s increasingly embarrassing interventions he has no interest in engaging seriously on the issue of trade deals.”

​READ MORE: Boris Johnson 'betrays' Scots farmers by going ahead with Australia Brexit deal

An official statement said: “Any deal we sign with Australia will include protections for the agriculture industry and will not undercut UK farmers or compromise our high standards.

“Typically, any tariff liberalisation is staged over time, with safeguards built in. Australian meat accounts for a very low proportion of total UK imports, and is produced to high standards.

“We will continue to work with the industry, keeping them involved throughout the process and helping it capture the full benefits of trade.”