Farmers voice hopes and fears as they prepare for Labour Government

As the new Labour Government prepares to take office for the first time in 14 years, farmers across the UK are sharing their views.

Steven Lear, a beef and arable farmer from Whitchurch in Buckinghamshire said he was ‘keeping an open mind', as the Labour Party had said so little about farming in the run-up to the election.

"Hopefully we will be allowed to stay on the same path and there will not be some great upheaval on the way," he said.

"I do think there could be higher taxes coming for farmers - possibly in capital gains or inheritance - but then again, there has been a lot of scaremongering from the Tories, so it is hard to know what is what.

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"I think there had been some big muck-ups by the Conservative prime ministers - Boris Johnson and the pigs and a lot of trust was lost following Liz Truss' trade deals and then her time as leader.

"Actual farming can do better under Labour, but it's the bigger landowners who might miss out."

Francesca Cooper and Hollie Fallick farm 500 acres of permanent pasture on the 900-acre Nunwell Estate on the Isle of Wight. In addition, the pair graze their cattle on around 400 acres for the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

For the first time, the island has two seats in Parliament with Isle of Wight West going to Labour (Richard Quigley) and the other to the Conservative candidate Joe Robertson (Isle of Wight East)

Ms Cooper said: "We will be looking for cross-party support now on things like abattoirs and infrastructure. As direct sellers we are quite excited about Labour messaging on food and nutrition and procurement."

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As well as strong Reform presence, Green candidates also made gains, which Ms Fallick said reflected the environmental concerns of islanders.

"One of the things we hop Labour stick to is the introduction of a Land Use Framework. We really believe having a framework which encompasses food production and conservation is really important," said Ms Cooper.

"It is something we stand for massively on this farm and I think national policy that recognises how money flows through to both those parts of the industry is really important and we are really excited about that."

Ioan Humphreys, a livestock farmer from Powys in Wales, took to social media to deliver his verdict on the General Election and said it did not matter who was in power as farming was always the bottom of the agenda.

Rory Christie is a dairy, pig and beef farmer from Port William in Wigtownshire. He said what matters now is that there is ‘competent governance' and that trust is restored between the Government and the people.

"We need competence - policies which will genuinely help people to live better lives. In my view that means food, health, shelter and education," Mr Christie said.

"Agriculture needs capital investment. Scotland has a huge opportunity to provide our nation and the world with food that comes from nature friendly farming. High output and highly inefficient.

"But we need investment. With farm margins so tight we cannot do it on our own but agriculture can deliver both food and power but it needs investment."