Lib Dems can heal rural wounds - Farron

In a speech that bought the Lib Dem conference hall to its feet in Bournemouth yesterday, Tim Farron, agriculture spokesman, told the party faithful ‘you must win in rural Britain next year because the alternatives are unthinkable’.

The MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale said he was angry that Labour had ‘attacked and impoverished’ rural Britain for more than ten years and called on rural Britain to ‘join us, rise up and take back power’. 

Mr Farron said: “I’m here to give you answers because although rural Britain suffers deep inequality and injustice there can and there must be real hope for something better. It’s our job to provide that hope.

“I’m here to make an ambitious bid for the Liberal Democrats to be the party of choice for our countryside right across Britain.”

He attacked the Defra ministerial team ‘who don’t even own a pair of wellies’ and said the Tories connected only with the ‘forces that blight’ the countryside.

Mr Farron said a Lib Dem priority would be to tackle the major supermarkets who ‘massively abuse their power’ to give farmers a fair price for their produce.  

“I pledge to you that I will introduce a powerful food market regulator to enforce fair trade for British farmers,” he said, adding that the supermarket ombudsman, favoured by the Tories, would be ‘toothless’ by comparison.   

He said the Lib Dems would ‘strip out £7 million of waste from the Rural Payments Agency’ to invest in a hill farm apprenticeship, adding that Labour had ‘taken leave of all responsibility’ for the ‘beleaguered agency’.

He also pledged to revive rural communities that were ‘blighted by second home owners’ leading to the loss of post offices, village schools and public transport links.

“We will give councils the power to increase tax on second homes in those areas worst affected and to use that money to create affordable homes for local families,” he said.

“Do you know what?” asked Mr Farron in a final rallying cry, “I am fed up with being right and coming third. You can’t change the world unless you win.  And it matters that we win.”

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