Speaking ahead of the North Sheep Event in Preston today (Wednesday, June 3), Mr Paice said it was a cost many hill farmers simply could not bear.

“The Government's plans for cost-sharing and electronic identification of sheep will cost the average hill farm around £1,000, pushing an already marginal enterprise closer to the brink.

“If hill farmers walk away local communities suffer, wildlife suffers and the landscape suffers. Unfortunately we have a Government that is totally out of touch with the realities of farming,” he said.

Mr Paice said recent Government opposition to EID was too little too late.

In 2002 Defra welcomed calls for EID, he said, with the then Animal Welfare Minister Elliot Morley commenting that EID was ‘the way forward'.

Mr Paice said: “It is all very well for Hilary Benn to now say that he doesn't want EID but the fact is that the Government supported the proposals when they could have been nipped in the bud.”

He added the cost-sharing proposals were ‘more cost than sharing'.

“A Conservative Government will firstly ask the industry to participate in devising the best policy of disease control and how it should be delivered. Only then can a fair apportionment of the cost be made.”