Politics

MPs have received assurances that the agricultural policy review being carried out by Defra’s new ministerial team will ‘tweak’ the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, not ‘revolutionise’ it.

Back in the mid-1990s, when I worked as a volunteer for the National Commission on Women’s Affairs at Government House in Bangkok, I went through two Prime Ministers in two years. That was expected in a clearly unstable political system.

New Prime Minister Liz Truss has appointed a Defra team which is prioritising the affordability and availability of food over its sustainability and healthiness, according to The Times Whitehall editor Chris Symth.

New Prime Minister Liz Truss has appointed a Defra team which is prioritising the affordability and availability of food over its sustainability and healthiness, according to The Times Whitehall editor Chris Symth.

UK food supply chains have already found they are unable to source imports and are now at breaking point, the NFU has warned.

UK food supply chains have already found they are unable to source imports and are now at ‘breaking point’, the NFU has warned.

Shadow Defra Secretary Jim McMahon did not mention farming or agriculture in his speech to Labour conference, save to say there was ‘work to do’ in this area.

People living in rural areas are under-represented compared to their urban counterparts, according to a leading Labour activist.

Defra has pledged to keep the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme in place, despite a commitment from the new ministerial team to a rapid review of farm support.

The first ever Welsh Agriculture Bill has today gone before the Senedd in what is being described as the most important piece of agricultural legislation to go through the Welsh parliament since it was formed more than 20 years ago.