Keir Starmer’s government has come under fire for its attack on farmers (Image: Getty/Parliament)
Ministers have been accused of “treating farmers with contempt” by halting applications for a major post- payment scheme.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch launched a blistering attack on the Government which announced it would suddenly stop accepting new applications to the sustainable farming incentive (SFI).
The programme, which promised to give farmers six weeks notice if applications were to close, pays them to manage their land in an environmentally friendly way.
Mrs Badenoch said: “The Labour government treats farmers with contempt.
“First the family farm tax, now withdrawing an important scheme without warning.
“ and Rachel Reeves do not care about rural communities.”
New farm payment agreements under the scheme had almost halved under Labour, figures have revealed.
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In the three quarters leading up to the general election, 23,350 agreements were made with farmers but in the same period since, just 13,355 have been made.
Former Environment Secretary Steve Barclay MP, who obtained the data through a parliamentary question, said: “These figures reveal that Labour have taken their eye off the ball when it comes to rolling out the most important scheme for the future of British farming.
“They inherited the most successful scheme the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had ever run which was helping to support food production and improve the environment – but have squandered this.
“It is not just the disastrous family farm tax, Labour are failing our farmers at every turn.”
The Daily Express has demanded the Government U-turn on its inheritance tax raid from October’s Budget.
Rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner said yesterday (WED) the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) scheme had to be closed as it’s “now fully subscribed” but the Government is designing “an improved scheme”.
He told MPs: “The fact is the high uptake of the scheme means it is now fully subscribed. Now, I’m afraid, as a Government, we inherited SFI with no spending cap despite a finite farming budget and that cannot continue.
“So we will continue to support farmers to transition to more sustainable farming models, including through the thousands of existing SFI agreements over the coming years and a revamped SFI offer. But this is an opportunity to improve how we do that under a fair and just farming transition.”
He added: “SFI can and must work better for all farms and for nature and I will set out the details of the revised SFI offer following the spending review, including when it will open for applications.”