Union Jack-clad Tory MP vows to host 'food and farming crisis' summit
Sporting a fetching ‘Union Jack suit’, Louth and Horncastle’s MP told the Conservative Party conference last week of plans to combat “a food and farming emergency” in Lincolnshire and the rest of the UK.
Victoria Atkins, who is Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, announced that she will host a crisis summit for farmers, fishermen and food producers.
To be held before the government's autumn Budget on November 26, the summit’s aim will be to come up with “urgent solutions those industries need to restore their confidence and safeguard British food security”.
The Conservative MP even said she is prepared to “put party politics to one side and work with the Labour government to implement any policies that are agreed”.
Ms Atkins said the crisis was reflected in the fact that a record 6,365 agriculture, forestry, and fishing businesses have closed in the past year.
And more than 1,100 pubs and restaurants had shut their doors since the last Budget, which is the equivalent to two per day.
Food prices had risen by 5.1 per cent in August, and the British Retail Consortium expected food price inflation to reach six per cent by the end of the year.
“This comes before the introduction of the ‘family farm tax’, which is expected to make the situation even worse,” she said.
"Eight per cent of farmers now worry about their businesses surviving, and more than 60 per cent have considered selling their farms and leaving farming entirely. The crisis is urgent, and requires immediate action.”
In her speech, Ms Atkins also launched a Conservative review into regulations and regulators within the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), with a view to scrapping and streamlining any that “work against the grain of rural life”.
She said: “A future Conservative government would take the findings of this review to reset the relationship between Whitehall and the countryside on day one of a new administration.
"The regulators of the future must protect food and water security, as well as wildlife and the environment, but must also deliver value for money and democratic accountability.
“Only the Conservatives will listen to farmers and food producers about what they actually need and work in the national interest to implement it.
“My constituents will know that food prices continue to rise under this government due, in part, to higher taxes and business costs in Labour’s last Budget.
"What we have now is an emergency facing food and farming. This started with the ‘family farm tax’, which will hit local businesses. However, the problems run much deeper than that.
"Many in my constituency are feeling betrayed by this government’s destruction of rural communities. I have a message: we hear you, we get it, and we have your backs.
"My priority is to put food production back at the heart of policy-making, and to strengthen the rural economy.
"A strong countryside creates a strong country. This is why I am offering to work with the government, following my emergency food and farming summit, to work with them for the betterment of rural communities such as ours.”