'This cliff-edge policy is a tragedy...they are unwilling to even listen'

The MP said food needed to be at the heart of policy in all Government departments and also called for more rural investment zones.

-  Adam Toms Pictures by Humphrey Neymar

LABOUR was accused of "ignoring" a key farming summit just as some growers face paying millions of pounds in inheritance tax.

Farmers gathered at Darts Farm near Topsham in Devon with the shadow farms minister Robbie Moore and local Tory MP David Reed, who set up the event.

Mr Reed said he had written to invite Labour farming minister Daniel Zeichner but had been "completely chinned off".

Mr Moore claimed that Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, was at the Royal Cornwall Show but "refused to do any big speeches [or] any huge engagements with people".

He added: "It's just frustrating that, despite the Government making huge decisions that are negatively impacting many of our family businesses, our farming businesses, our rural economy...it doesn't seem that they're willing to justify the decisions that they are making, and that is hugely, hugely irritating for many of those that have turned up."

Ignored