George Eustice: Highs and lows of his time as Defra secretary

Defra secretaries come and go, so two-and-a-half years was a relatively long stint in the job for George Eustice.

Since he was appointed secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs on 13 February 2020 – prior to that he had been farm minister since 2013 – the MP for Camborne and Redruth has been a somewhat divisive figure in agriculture.

He presided over decisions that have been unpopular with farmers – gradually introducing the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme while rapidly phasing out the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) – but he was also instrumental in authorising bovine TB vaccination trials for cattle.

See also: Ranil Jayawardena announced as new Defra secretary

In the race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, Mr Eustice gave his support in the Conservative Party leadership contest to Liz Truss’ rival, Rishi Sunak.

However, Ms Truss sacked Mr Eustice and replaced him with Ranil Jayawardena, the Conservative MP for North East Hampshire and former minister for international trade.

Other key allies of Mr Sunak, including Dominic Raab, Grant Shapps and Steve Barclay, were also axed as Ms Truss appointed loyalists to form the most diverse cabinet in history, with no white males in senior roles.

With an abrupt end to his tenure at Defra this week, we look at those announcements that have endeared Mr Eustice to farmers, and some of his more unpopular pronouncements.

What farmers liked…

Abolition of statutory levy for potato growers and horticulturalists

In February 2021, Mr Eustice announced a review of AHDB Horticulture after a ballot that month resulted in 61% of growers voting to abolish the compulsory levy.

A swift decision on its future was pledged.

A year later, the statutory levy for potato growers and horticulturalists was indeed abolished.

New bovine TB cattle vaccination trials

In July 2021, after years of inaction, the first government-led trials for bovine TB cattle vaccination and an associated diagnostic test were initiated by Mr Eustice.

He described that scientific breakthrough as a “major step forwards in our battle to see the disease eradicated from this country”.

Always unafraid to put his full political weight behind the badger culling policy, first introduced in England in 2013, Mr Eustice nonetheless said “no one wants to be culling badgers forever” as he announced it would be phased out.

Rewarding farmers with enhanced payments for soil improvements

In June 2021, farmers who adopted measures to improve soil health were told they would receive a 30% uplift in support payments from the government’s new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pilot environmental scheme.

For farmers joining the SFI proper from 2022, that meant payments of some £22/ha for the most elementary level of soil management, rising to £58/ha for intermediate standards on grassland soils.

Uplift in Countryside Stewardship payments

In a bid to lure more farmers to the Countryside Stewardship scheme, in preparation for the transition to new post-Brexit environmental schemes in England, payment rates increased by 30% on average in January 2022.

Farming Rules for Water policies put on hold

A ban on muckspreading this autumn was lifted as farmers grappled with rising costs for fuel, fertiliser and animal feed due to the war in Ukraine.

A year-long reprieve was also announced to a ban on the use of solid urea fertilisers due to market conditions.

Mr Eustice said the measures were “not the whole solution”, but would “help farmers manage their nitrogen needs”.

What farmers did not like…

Organic farming for all?

When farmers were hit with a 200% increase in fertiliser prices, they were advised by Mr Eustice that the solution lay at the rear ends of their livestock. Switch to organic manures, he pronounced.

Not only that, the shortage of inorganic fertilisers actually provided “an opportunity for farmers”, he wrote in a letter to fellow MP Sir John Hayes, when the issue of fertiliser prices was raised on behalf of a farming constituent.

That message was reiterated by Mr Eustice at the NFU Conference in Birmingham in February 2022, where it went down like a heap of manure.

“I would like George Eustice to look behind the Defra sofa for some spare organic manure,” chortled Merseyside grower Olly Harrison at the time.

Farmers have never had it so good, right?

In January 2022, the Defra secretary provoked an angry backlash from farmers on Twitter after suggesting that strong farmgate prices would cover cuts to their BPS funding.

Generally, “the farming sector, particularly those that require the BPS most, are in a very good financial position at the moment, and the increase in gross margins that they [farmers] have had – notwithstanding the fact that they have also seen an increase in input costs – more than offsets the kind of reductions that we’re making in their BPS payment,” he told the Oxford Farming Conference.

Applause was not forthcoming.

Too little, too late for a pig industry in crisis

The pig industry warned Mr Eustice in September 2021 that the sector would be irreparably damaged unless there was immediate action to address the labour crisis in the meat-processing sector.

Despite efforts by the sector to recruit more people locally, to make the roles more attractive and to bring in more workers from outside Europe, Mr Eustice laid the blame at the door of the processors, berating them for failing to tap into government schemes to recruit more labour.

Speaking at an NFU food security summit in London in December that year, he claimed the UK’s large processors had not used the Skilled Worker visa scheme to recruit foreign butchers.

The blunt response from the British Meat Processors Association? The scheme is a “bureaucratic nightmare”.