Rural vote key to General Election

The campaign, which began with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday and culminate end with the national vote on May 6, is being hailed as once-in-a-generation opportunity for farmers to make their mark on the political landscape.

The logic is twofold. Farming, with all its wider implications for issues like food security, climate change and animal welfare, has never been higher up the political agenda then today.

And while farming will not necessarily figure prominently in the national debate, it could be a major factor at local level.

The NFU has undertaken analysis revealing that many of the UK’s rural seats are marginal (see page 2). In an election where the overall outcome is very much in the balance, these seats could be crucial in determining who forms the next Government.

NFU president Peter Kendall said the industry needed ‘farming champions’ in Parliament who would put farming ‘at the heart of policy-making’.

He said farmers and growers needed strong political backing if they are to play their part in tackling the global challenges of increasing population, dwindling resources and climate change.

“This general election is crucial to the future of our industry, when we need to increase food production and reduce our impact on the environment,” he said.

He urged NFU members to ‘make a difference in this election’ and use the union’s manifesto to ensure candidates put farming ‘at the top of their agenda’.

The Country Land and Business Association urged election candidates to ‘consider the best way forward for the countryside’ as they seek votes.

NFU Scotland president, Jim McLaren said the importance of Scottish and UK agriculture in providing ‘plentiful, safe and nutritious food in a sustainable fashion’ was growing and that it was ‘crucial’ that the next UK government recognises farming’s contribution.

The agricultural spokesmen for the three main UK political parties were also keen to stress the significance of farming in this election campaign. 

Jim Fitzpatrick, Agriculture Minister for the past 10 months, said he expected farming to feature in the campaign.

“I would be very disappointed if it doesn’t because farming is a very important industry not just to rural communities but for the whole of British society, which waking up to that more and more.”

His Conservative counterpart Jim Paice said the rural vote was ‘very important’ and highlighted farming’s contribution to the rural economy. “We want to put food production back at the top of the agenda,” he said.

The Liberal Democrat’s Roger Williams said UK so agriculture was a ‘serious concern’ in his rural constituency and that the rural vote was ‘highly important’ across the country.

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