Scottish Rural Affairs secretary Richard Lochhead has described Scotland's CAP allocation as "indefensible" and "a slap in the face".

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Updating the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Common Agricultural Policy budget (2014-2020), Mr Lochhead accused Defra ministers of "Withholding millions of euros of subsidy from Scotland's farmers" by deciding to keep European farm funding allocations proportionally the same between the UK's constituent countries.

Farmers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive proportionally the same shares of the reduced €27.6 billion budget (£23.1bn) CAP budget. Budgetary cuts were driven during negotiations by a number of EU leaders (including the UK Prime Minister) who are enforcing austerity measures in their own states.

Lochhead claimed that there is cross-party support at Holyrood for allocating €223 million (£188m) extra EU cash, known as the convergence uplift, to Scotland's farmers, but the UK government announced on Friday that it intends to share the extra amount equally between farmers in all four countries.

SMPs and Scottish farm unions had called for the bonus to be given to Scotland's farmers, due to their low payment rate per hectare; farmers in Scotland have the lowest per hectare payments in Europe, they claim. Defra, on the other hand, maintains that Scottish claimants "receive the highest payments per farm in the UK, and the one of the highest overall in the EU."

Even so, under the current system, Scotland's farmers will receive 16 percent of the extra funding, rather than the full 100 percent.

Mr Lochhead said on Tuesday, "In this decision, the UK Government is trying to defend the indefensible. I thought former DEFRA Minister Hilary Benn's decision not to compensate sheep farmers for foot-and-mouth was terrible, but this is worse.

"The EU brought in the convergence uplift to benefit those farmers with the lowest per hectare rates. If Scotland had been an independent EU member state, we would have benefited from a €1 billon uplift between 2014-2020. In the event, Scotland's low payments meant the UK qualified for an uplift of €223 million over the whole budget period.

"Were it not for Scotland, the rest of the UK would get nothing extra - and therefore it is only right and proper that the UK's convergence uplift should come to Scotland. This decision goes against the intentions of the EU. It defies the wishes of this Parliament. And it takes away from Scottish farmers and crofters resources which should be theirs, and on which their livelihoods depend."

He continued, "Scotland’s farmers and crofters, our environment and our rural communities are worse off as a result of the UK Government’s CAP negotiations and decisions. This deeply regrettable position means we have tough decisions ahead."

NFU Scotland has appealed against the decision and written to the European Commission, asking that the EU executive review the UK government's allocation. However, Scottish Lib Dem MEP George Lyon said that there are some positive aspects of the budget allocations, including coupled support for livestock farmers.