Legislation to continue farming subsidies after Brexit clears Commons

Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers said: Our landmark Agriculture Bill will transform British farming, enabling a balance between food production and the environment which will safeguard our countryside and farming communities for the future

Defra minister George Eustice told MPs the measures outlined in the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Bill will “give them that certainty” as the UK leaves the European Union.

Speaking during the Commons committee stage debate, he said: “This clause provides the legal basis for the Government and devolved administrations to make payments to farmers under the direct payments scheme for 2020.

“The clause is needed because of the effect of article 137 of the Withdrawal Agreement which results in the EU legislation governing the 2020 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) schemes no longer applying in the UK on exit day.

“It will absolutely give them that certainty in that this Bill is essential for us to be able to give farmers their direct payments, those area-based payments in December, and without this direct payment regulation coming across into UK law we would be unable to do that.”

Liberal Democrat former party leader Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) urged a delay as he said 85% of livestock farm incomes come through basic payments.

He said: “Of course the 12-month stay of execution, if you like, is something which will be welcomed by many of my farmers. However, the danger is from January next year he is planning to phase out BPS (basic payment scheme)... with no certainty of a replacement until 2028.

“Does he not worry that we will lose many livestock farmers during that seven-year transition and he should therefore delay the phasing out of BPS?”

Mr Eustice said there was a need to strike a new course “sensitively and a need to ensure that agriculture remains profitable”.

He added: “We want a vibrant, profitable agricultural industry - that is why the future Agriculture Bill also makes provision for payments to improve productivity and it’s why it sets quite a long transition period of seven years to gradually phase out the old legacy scheme.”

Shadow environment minister Daniel Zeichner said Labour supported the Bill as “there is a clear funding gap between the ending of direct payments under the CAP and the Government’s considerably delayed Agriculture Bill”.

Mr Zeichner raised concerns that the legislation was “very rushed to make up for the fact that the Government has of course lost the last 14 months in delays and wranglings and has reintroduced the Agriculture Bill just days before we leave the European Union”.

He added that Labour is “simply not convinced that everything will be in place for the new farming payments system by the end of the year” and “there’s a real danger of continuing uncertainty for farmers”.

He added: “It’s imperative that if we do see delays in production of this new payment system there is a continuation mechanism in place in the current Bill.”

During the debate’s third reading, new Tory chairman-elect of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee Neil Parish said it was “absolutely key... that we don’t take our eye off the fact that we do actually need to have that good trade deal”.

He said: “It is important that as we move the Agriculture Bill forward and look at the new system of payment, that we don’t actually put farmers out of business.”

The third reading passed unopposed and unamended and will go to the Lords for scrutiny.