The Defra secretary’s latest warning ahead of the EU Referendum, Liz Truss said Britain’s sheep industry would be jeopardised by a vote to leave.

Having called the EU Referendum for 23rd June, Senior government ministers backing Prime Minister David Cameron have urged voters to choose to remain part of the EU in the referendum, and have offered little insight into what key policies (including agriculture) would look like if the vote goes the other way.

On Monday, ahead of a meeting Smith farmers in Cumbria, the Defra secretary said forty per cent of all the lamb and mutton produced in the UK went to the EU in 2014, bringing £290million to the industry. The EU accounts for 97% of Britain’s lamb and mutton exports.

She said outside the EU tariffs could add an additional £155 million to the cost of lamb and mutton exports, making British lamb a less attractive prospect for Europeans compared to New Zealand and Australian competitors, and pointed out that British lamb still does not have access to the US and China markets, making the EU a particularly important export destination. She said exporters could also face trouble in the form of diverging welfare, food safety and labelling rules.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Truss said, “Sheep farmers in Cumbria and across the uplands are a vital part of the British countryside, but without the benefits the industry enjoys from our membership of the EU the very future of this iconic industry could be under threat. The single market is essential for British lamb - forty per cent of all the lamb reared in the UK goes to Europe. Outside the European Union, farmers could face quotas and tariffs as well as a red tape double whammy of having to follow both UK and EU rules.

“Less trade could result in significant price falls, damaging the incomes of the 10,000 sheep farmers who depend on it.”

France is the main destination for the UK’s sheep and lamb exports, followed by Germany, Belgium and the Republic of Ireland.