Defra secretary defends record amid absentee claims

Defra secretary Therese Coffey has defended her record at the department, insisting she is a “hands-on” minister amid claims she is “asleep at the wheel”.

NFU president Minette Batters has previously spoken of her difficulty in getting a one-to-one meeting with Ms Coffey and suggested Number 10 and the Treasury were more supportive of agriculture than Defra was under her leadership.

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Asked by Farmers Weekly whether farming was a priority aspect of her portfolio, Ms Coffey said: “I have been a constituency MP for nearly 13 years now. There is a lot of farming in Suffolk Coastal.

“But I like to use the strengths of our ministerial team. Clearly, [farming minister] Mark [Spencer]’s experience in the industry is very important. It adds that credibility and adds that depth of knowledge.

“I have been involved in some aspects of farming, but the secretary of state covers the entire department, and that is why we have ministers to support and take initiative on a variety of things.”

Ms Coffey’s comments were made at an on-farm visit for journalists just outside Milton Keynes, as an announcement was made on the future of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.

She went on to defend her absence from the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) in January this year, which she missed because she was representing the UK at the inauguration of Brazil’s president Lula da Silva.

OFC has been attended by a Defra secretary every year for decades.

“I have spoken to the CLA conference, I am speaking to the NFU conference. I do not need to keep going to conferences to be able to deliver for the farming industry,” she said.