Show backlash for Labour over 'awful' rural policies

LABOUR has been accused of viewing the Westcountry's rural communities as "targets rather than constituents" over controversial plans to reform significant farming policies.

- ATHWENNA IRONS

Speaking on yesterday's opening day of the 2025 Devon County Show, Lord Roborough slammed the Government for the “many awful decisions and actions” it has taken recently, pointing to the changes to inheritance tax reliefs and sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme.

Addressing the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Political Breakfast, the Shadow Minister for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said he “could not imagine why” the Environment Secretary Steve Reed would be “reluctant” to attend the event and speak with stakeholders.

Despite invitations being sent out to Government ministers by the CLA, it was a political no-show at the standing-room-only discussion event yesterday - traditionally regarded as a curtain-raiser for three days of festivities at Westpoint Exeter.

A dairy farmer from South West Devon and member of the House of Lords, Lord Roborough said: “I and my colleagues hold this Government to account for the many awful decisions and actions they are taking that reflect no sympathy for rural business, no understanding of the countryside, and no empathy for those who live and work in it. I'm sorry to see that they now intend to treat our fishermen, or fishers as we're supposed to call them now, in the same way, with complete capitulation in recovering our fishing rights.

“The pattern is clear, we in the countryside and on the coast are a part of this country that the Labour Party seems to find as targets rather than constituents. One of my colleagues suggested that, if I wanted to give a short speech today, I could talk about what the Labour Government has got right - or, for no speech at all, what they've got right in Defra.”