EU subsidy was my profit... now it's gone I have to rely on solar panels, not farming, to survive

Chris Wray stands on land his family has farmed for five generations and says something that would have been unthinkable when Britain voted for Brexit: "I can't afford to employ my own kids."

- BY CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

Looking out over his 700 acres, 10 years after the country voted to leave the EU the 46-year-old father of four adds: "My life was all planned out for me, but I can't say the same for my children."

In that June 2016 poll, Boston delivered the strongest Leave vote in the country.

More than 75% of residents backed Brexit, turning the Lincolnshire market town into a symbol of a political revolt built on frustration and anger.

For years beforehand, Boston had become shorthand for Britain's immigration debate. Following the expansion of the EU in 2004, workers from Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia and elsewhere arrived in large numbers.

Different languages became commonplace, new businesses opened and many residents felt their town was changing too fast. The resentment was real, as was the sense that Westminster neither understood nor cared. Into that situation stepped Nigel Farage, Ukip and the wider Leave movement with a simple message repeated on loop: End free movement. Take back control. Put British workers first. Boston went all in.

But the workers who became the focus of so much political anger were also sustaining the industries Boston depended on. They picked vegetables, worked in food processing plants and filled other vacancies unpopular with locals. Without them, much of the local economy would not have functioned.

For farmers, the labour shortage was only part of the problem. The most damaging consequence of Brexit came once the celebrations ended. For decades, British agriculture had depended on the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, which prevented farms from going bust by guaranteeing minimum payments. To those outside farming, it appeared an obscure bureaucratic arrangement. To farmers, it was often the difference between profit and loss.