Budget shows how little labour understands island and rural communities — scottish national party

Watching the Laura Keunsberg show on Sunday morning in the wake of last weeks Labour budget, it was clear to see how little the Chancellor understands island and rural communities, how

complex the food production chain is and how many people depend on it for their livelihoods. As importantly, it is very clear that she either did not know, or worse did not care, what the

net effects of her budget decisions would have on farming communities here in Scotland. At one of my regular meetings of local NFU members in Perth, my Westminster colleagues Pete Wishart MP

and Dave Doogan MP were also in attendance and Dave recited the very negative reaction in the Chamber as she made her announcements, and how she looked surprised as though she couldn’t

quite understand why. Perhaps that is the glimmer of hope the sector needs to be able to call for a rethink on some of those decisions. Before the election there was a clear and united voice

across the country that farming needed to see multi annual year ring fenced funding, increased from the previous levels and the Bew Review recommendations implemented for collective

engagement to agree the principles of future intra-UK allocations. That was the right call, it would ensure the same certainty we had while we were in the EU. Instead, Labour’s Brexit

Britain approach to farming is worse than before. The removal of ring fencing and Barnetisng the funding was always one of the biggest fears from the day after the Brexit vote, and the

Labour party have done it. Scotland has traditionally and rightly seen a bigger than population share of the funding for agriculture when it was allocated from the EU, for all the reasons we

understand. That has now been reversed. There is still a need for clarity on how long the baselining will be held for, but the soundings are not positive. This could effectively see a

massive cut in the funding for agriculture from Westminster, but it will be hidden from view by the fact that it has now been rolled into the Block grant. A bit like the winter fuel

allowance, there has been no regard given to what this will do to communities if it is not reversed. They have also imposed changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and made these

announcements with absolutely no discussion with the devolved nations, despite the colossal contribution that agriculture makes to the Scottish economy. I am wondering now if my optimism of

a reset in relationships between Westminster and the Holyrood Governments was justified, when decisions like this that could see family farms in Scotland devastated and not a single word was

spoken by them or views sought as to the ramifications of their proposals. The NFU are clear and have challenged the suggestion that only one in four farms would be affected by the change

to APR inheritance tax as misleading and that it doesn’t take account of how land prices differ across the country, and so will impact communities differently. This budget has been a

wrecking ball to agriculture. It has devastated certainty of support, it has destroyed succession planning for family farms and has left the sector feeling battered and bruised at a time

when what we needed was a recognition of the value that the sector brings to the country. We need folk coming in, we need young folk with their energy, ideas with ambitions and hope for a

future career in a world class sector, not abandoning it and cutting stock numbers, risking our food security and environmental and bio diversity gains we have made up to now. We rightly

place high expectations on farming to deliver a lot. We want food production, emissions reductions, bio diversity gains and to farm for nature and climate. In return we provide public

support which we have to justify, and it’s a relationship everyone knows and understands. This partnership approach between the Scottish Government and industry is vital to deliver the

changes we all require and give security to the communities who will deliver. While the Labour party have thrown all that trust out the window, we will continue to do all we can to support

the industry through that partnership we have forged over many years, we will continue with direct payments and co design of future funding, we will help build sustainability in tandem with

prioritising food production. We will no doubt disagree on certain details, but the fundamental principle of recognising and valuing the industry for all it does, and can continue to do,

will be at the heart of our thinking. If the chancellor wants to build that kind of working partnership that we have forged, then reversing the catastrophic decisions she has made so far may

be a start.