Keir Starmer was condemned at PMQs after a minister was caught telling farmers that they are ‘not high up on the government’s pecking order’, just a day after the latest major protest in Whitehall.
Environment minister Daniel Zeichner was speaking at the Norfolk Farming Conference when he was confronted over Rachel Reeves’ hated inheritance tax hike on hardworking land owners.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Tory MP Harriet Cross condemned the comments.
She said: “Yesterday the farming minister told a conference of farmers that farming is ‘not high in the pecking order for this government’.”
“Given the heartless family farms tax, is his minister correct? Yes or no.”
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Sir Keir was condemned over the minister’s comment (Image: Getty / Parliament Live)
A humiliated Prime Minister was forced to slap down his minister for the comments, insisting: “Farming’s top of the agenda as far as I’m concerned”.
His reply sparked merciless laughter from the opposition benches.
Sir Keir continued: “That’s why we’ve put £5 million to support farmers in the Budget, they failed to spend £300 million on their watch on farming, and we’ve set out our roadmap which has been welcomed by the NFU as she very well knows.”
Mo Metcalf-Fisher, of the Countryside Alliance, told the Express: “The news that farming is top of the Government’s agenda comes as somewhat as a welcome surprise”.
“I’m not sure the Chancellor has got the memo though, as she’s still refusing to engage with farmers over the disastrous family farm tax.
“Until that happens, it’s difficult to see how the Government’s rural and farming agenda won’t be overshadowed by the fall out from the Budget”.
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Daniel Zeichner speaking at the farming conference yesterday (Image: AG Recruiter, X)
Mr Zeichner’s comments sparked fury yesterday, bluntly saying: “The Budget is what the Budget is.”
A second source in the room described the comments as causing the “atmosphere in the entire building to just go”.
One farmer in the audience publicly blasted the minister for just turning up to “tell us everything we want to hear” but ignoring the widespread concerns about the Government’s planned tax hike.
Mr Zeichner added: “The future of farming not about getting more government money.”
“If you start untangling the budget, you put the whole economy at risk.”
Farmer Russell McKenzie fumed: “Just in case this doesn’t come as a surprise, proof that UKLabour really don’t value farming or food production in the UK”.
“Staggeringly unbelievable if these are the words uttered by Daniel Zeichner.”
The Daily Express’s has demanded a U-turn.
Mr Zeichner said farms need to adjust to a “new world” where they should not expect to rely on public funding.
A spokesman for the Department for the Environment said: “Our support for farmers is steadfast. It’s why we are investing £5 billion over two years directly into the pockets of farmers for the tireless work they do putting food on the nation’s tables and as stewards of the countryside.”