Analysis: What would a Labour government do for food and farming?
© PA Images/Alamy Stock The main political parties have set out their visions for food and farming in their manifestos, as election day looms on Thursday 4 July.
If the polls are correct, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party will form the next government with a huge majority and a mandate for change.
Farming is a long-term business, so a long-term budget commitment from the government is vital to help farmers address immediate challenges and invest in their businesses for the future.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says apart from Labour’s “green prosperity plan” at no more than £5bn/year, there are hardly any definite promises on spending in its manifesto.
But the IFS says Labour has committed to “big promises” in areas including the NHS, education and national security, which will require “big spending” – and may mean less money for food and agriculture.
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ELM pledge
Labour says it will support farmers in England by continuing the government’s Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme, if it wins power.
But the NFU, NFU Scotland (NFUS) and Country, Land and Business Association (CLA) are concerned that, unlike the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, Labour has failed to outline its farm funding plans.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw says a UK budget of £5.5bn/year (compared with £3.7bn currently) is necessary to underpin food production and deliver for the environment.
But no mention of the agricultural budget in Labour’s manifesto is “deeply disappointing”.
NFUS president Martin Kennedy agrees the absence of a funding commitment is a “major concern”, which “ignores our number one priority for the next UK government”.
CLA president Victoria Vyvyan says Labour’s top focus is economic growth, but its manifesto “is silent about how it will unlock the growth potential of the rural economy”.
A 2023 study commissioned by the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust found the government must invest at least £4.4bn a year in nature and climate-friendly farming to meet environmental goals.
Vicki Hird, strategic lead on agriculture at the Wildlife Trusts, says it is “frustrating” that Labour has been making statements about the vital need to drive nature-friendly farming everywhere – vital for wildlife, food security, livelihoods, and climate adaptation – yet there is no funding commitment.
The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) says its key request of any incoming UK administration is to provide adequate funding for Welsh agriculture annually.
“Since 2019, Wales has received around a quarter of a billion pounds less in funding for agriculture and rural development than expected had the UK remained within the EU,” an FUW spokesman says.
“The EU legacy funding for agriculture and rural development in Wales should now total around £450m annually if we are to continue to make innumerable contributions to our rural areas and to Welsh society.”
But Labour says the party has been clear all along that it would not make any pre-election unfunded costing announcements.
“We will only know how much money we can allocate to ELM and farm funding after we have carried out our first spending review – and that’s if we win the election,” according to a spokesman.
Bovine TB
The NFU says Labour claims that badger culling is “ineffective” when used as a tool to tackle bovine TB “disregards the latest science showing a 56% decline in this awful disease” in England.
David Bean, parliament and government relations manager at the Countryside Alliance, also believes Labour’s manifesto statement on bovine TB is “incoherent”.
“If Labour believes culling is ‘ineffective’ then why isn’t it stopped immediately? Actually, we believe culling justifies its place in the government’s TB eradication programme, based on the evidence in England.”
A Labour spokesman says its position on badger culling has “shifted slightly” and it would not end culling overnight but is “confident” rolling out a TB eradication programme, including vaccination, herd management and biosecurity, will allow it to do so.
Food security
The Conservatives are the only party to commit to introducing a legally binding food security target, to apply UK-wide alongside the UK Food Security Index.
Meanwhile, Labour says “food security is national security”. But Mr Kennedy says the party would have to “back that rhetoric with action”, if it wins the election.
“Labour would have to listen to the industry and recognise the unintended consequences of previous wrong decisions, or we will end up being more reliant on unsustainable options,” he adds.
Promises, promises – the key party pledges for farming
Conservatives
- Raise UK farm spending by £1bn over the life of the next parliament (equivalent to £200m a year compared with current £3.7bn budget)
- Ring-fence funding for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, plus a £20m UK-wide farming innovation fund
- Introduce a legally binding target for UK food security
- Ensure at least 50% of food for the public sector is produced locally
- Fast track planning permissions for glasshouses, slurry stores, and farm reservoirs
- Help agriculture meet its labour needs, while reducing migrant labour over five years
The Green Party
- Triple financial support for farmers to support their transition to nature-friendly farming
- Link farm payments to reduced use of pesticides and other agrochemicals
- Ensure good quality surplus food is not wasted
- Create a new commission on animal protection, with an end to badger culling and a ban on factory farming
- Introduce an immediate end to the emergency authorisation of bee-killing pesticides
- Ban on all blood sports, including trail hunting
- Onshore and offshore wind to provide around 70% of UK electricity by 2030
Labour
- Seek a new veterinary agreement with the EU to boost trade
- Set a target for at least 50% “local” food in hospitals, army bases and prisons
- Continue the rollout of Environmental Land Management in England
- Set up British infrastructure council, to speed broadband rollout
- Build better flood defences and natural flood management schemes
- Reform planning laws for rural housing
- Form a new rural crime strategy to crack down on thefts, fly-tipping and livestock worrying
- Protect British farmers from lower standards in future trade deals
- Work with farmers and scientists to eradicate bovine TB, “so that we can end the ineffective badger cull”
Liberal Democrats
- Accelerate the rollout of Environmental Land Management, with an extra £1bn a year
- Introduce a national food strategy to ensure food security and tackle rising food prices
- Invest in rural infrastructure, including small abattoirs
- Strengthen the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator
- Negotiate comprehensive agreements with the EU, and renegotiate the “botched” Australian and New Zealand trade deals
- Reward farmers to reduce fertiliser and pesticide use, while banning caged egg production and heather burning on peatlands
Plaid Cymru
- Make the planned sustainable farming scheme more flexible and less onerous to join
- Drop the nitrate vulnerable zone approach to nitrate control in favour of a more proportionate model
- Control badger numbers as part of a TB eradication policy
- Strengthen UK disease surveillance networks
- Seek changes to the Shortage Occupancy List to bolster the labour pool
- Reconfigure the Rural Fuel Duty Relief Scheme to tackle high fuel costs in rural areas
- Launch a specialist all-Wales rural crime team
Reform UK
- Increase the farm budget (in England) to £3bn (from £2.4bn), made as direct payments
- Scrap climate-related farming subsidies, so that productive land remains farmed
- Grant powers to the Competitions and Markets Authority to ensure fair pricing
- Change planning laws to support farm shops with zero business rates
- Target 70% food self-sufficiency, with tax breaks for smaller food processors and abattoirs
- Encourage young people into farming, with subsidised courses at agricultural colleges
- Place an immediate freeze on non-essential immigration
NB The Scottish National Party had not published its manifesto when Farmers Weekly went to press.
Top priorities for next government
Delegates attending the recent Future Countryside event at Syon Park, west London were asked to outline their priorities for the countryside for the next government.
NFU tenants’ forum chairman John Marland said: “We need recognition that farmers are the backbone of the country. You cannot go green if your business is in the red. Learn from the past.”
Flavian Obeiro, a Kenyan-born pig farmer based in Hampshire, said: “Less words, more action. Long-term solutions for long-term problems. Connect the countryside to urban areas.”
One unnamed delegate said: “Roll out future advances in communication in the countryside first so that it can become more productive.
“Proper rural-proofing for all government legislation. Respect the differences in rural life and do not try to change them.”
Margaret Clark, chairwoman of the Rural Coalition, said in absentia:
“The need for a comprehensive rural strategy. That would include recognition that the countryside is more than farming and nature, environment also keeps community.”