We will back British farmers - Spelman

Chancellor George Osborne will unveil his plans to make £6 billion pounds worth of savings across Government on Monday (May 24).

Mrs Spelman, in her first speech in her new role, acknowledged that ‘every single department is going to have to do more with significantly less’, including her own.

“At Defra, my whole team has been engaged in this process and taking decisions collectively. We are looking for value. Not price. Because cheap may be cheerful but it doesn’t tend to last,” she said.

She said her previous experience in the agricultural industry had taught her about the ‘interdependency of our environment, our economy and our society’.

“So we will not be making choices between economic productivity, thriving ecosystems and a healthy environment but choices which create a successful synthesis of all these,” she said.

“We will promote British farming. Reducing unnecessary red tape and regulation and helping farmers get on with what really matters – producing the food we eat.

“We will help this country protect the environment while adapting to the climate change we know is already happening.”

Speaking at the Natural History Museum, she went on to outline her views on bovine TB, reiterating the coalition commitment  to introducing a ‘carefully managed and science-led policy of badger control’ in TB hotspot areas. She emphasised her desire to implement a policy backed up by scientific evidence.

“Time has been lost and, as someone who was working on the issue at the time of the Krebs report, I know that up to date evidence is all,” she said

“That report was published in 2003. Seven years later both the incidence and geographical spread of bovine TB has changed.

“The Krebs proposals may no longer be enough. There are no quick fixes and no magic bullets for this disease.

“It will take many, many years before it can be eradicated from our herds. And the system that we develop to start that process will be strictly science-led.”

She said was ‘increasingly optimistic’ in the wake of her recent trip to Brussels to meet EU Farming Ministers about ‘the opportunities for meaningful CAP reform’.

“All member states are facing up to tough economic choices and this has focused their minds on reform. I believe we have the opportunity to shape the negotiations to deliver a CAP which reflects our four-pronged approach to good value for farmers, taxpayers, consumers and the environment alike,” she said.

She said Defra would ‘lead the way in encouraging public procurement to choose food which is local and involves the fewest food miles in its journey from producer to plate’. 

“Animal health and welfare standards in this country are probably the highest in the world and many, many people would prefer to choose local if they actually had that choice,” she said.

The coalition Government would ‘prioritise the roll-out of broadband to rural neighbourhoods’, she added.

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