Brandon Lewis and Edwin Poots in stand-off over £34m agriculture cuts

There was little clarity last night as to how a row between secretary of state Brandon Lewis and Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots over £34m of rural funding cuts will be resolved.
Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots wrote a joint letter to the UK government claiming it was cutting £34m in rural funding to NI.Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots wrote a joint letter to the UK government claiming it was cutting £34m in rural funding to NI.
Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots wrote a joint letter to the UK government claiming it was cutting £34m in rural funding to NI.

The News Letter reported yesterday that the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) had firmly rejected claims from Mr Poots that NI stands to lose £34m in rural funding over the next three years as a result of Brexit.

A well placed source told the News Letter: “Most farmers across Northern Ireland probably have no idea yet that they could lose £34 million over the next few years.”

He suggested the propose cuts could be due to the Treasury trawling around public finances for fund to battle the pandemic.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis insisted that NI would not lose rural funding.
(Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis insisted that NI would not lose rural funding.
(Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis insisted that NI would not lose rural funding. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

On Monday agriculture ministers from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales published an open letter to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs accusing the UK government of reneging on promises to ensure that EU funding to the regions would not suffer due to Brexit.

The letter claimed that NI stood to lose £34m over the next three years while Scotland faces a £170m loss and Wales £160m.

Mr Poots said: “The UK government must recognise its responsibility to engage in a meaningful way with us and to ensure that funding is allocated, not just in a way that is fair and right, but in the way that the government committed to doing so.”

However, in response, Secretary of State Brandon Lewis told the News Letter that claims NI agriculture could lose £34m over three years were “simply not true”. He insisted NI farmers will “continue to receive the same level of funding in 2021 as they received at the baseline in 2019”.

However, in response, the Department of Agriculture appeared to only restate its claims about £34m in projected cuts.

“The £34m is the projected loss across years 2021-22 to 2023-2024,” a spokesman said last night. “The announcement this week confirmed a reduction of £14 million for 2021-22.”

A well placed source told the News Letter: “It would appear that the Treasury may have miscalculated how much money it was going to claw back from Northern Ireland.

“Hopefully it will not be as much as was first feared. We are hoping an announcement will clarify matters on Monday or Tuesday.”

He said that the Treasury had analysed how Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales had spent EU rural funding over recent years and found that Northern Ireland had been making proportionately higher payments directly to farmers than Scotland and Wales. “As a result it may have miscalculated how much it meant to pull back,” he added.

He speculated that rural funding which is not going directly to farmers might be viewed as non-essential by the Treasury in the current climate.

As a result, rural funding which was earmarked for rural schemes and rural development may be cut in light of the pandemic, he added.

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