Labour MPs last night launched an eleventh hour bid to save the Agricultural Wages Board, which the government has decided to abolish. The party tabled an amendment to the Public Bodies Bill in an effort to prevent the scrapping of board, which negotiates pay and terms of employment on behalf of agricultural workers.  image expired

The 13 MPs on the Public Bodies Bill Committee, which is tasked with deciding whether to scrap or save each of the victims of the tories' "bonfire of the quangos," decided against giving the wages board a late reprieve yesterday. Labour is also seeking to preserve the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC), another victim of 'the cuts.'

The Public Bodies Committee will decide next week whether to save the CRC, although it voted not to save the AWB, which represents 154,000 workers. Labour hopes to force a vote on the issue later in the year in a last-ditch attempt to save the board. The Government has said its plans to expand a Rural Policy Unit within Defra would cover 'countryside issues.'

However, this proposal has met with strong criticism from those who say this would leave no room for an independent voice, which the quangos provided. Without such representation, there is a fear there will be no-one in a position to challenge Government policy.

Shadow Environment Secretary Mary Creagh, MP for Wakefield, slammed the plans and the Tories' unwillingness to renege on its decision. She said, "The row over planning reforms, along with the forests debacle, demonstrates yet again how out of touch the Government is on rural issues."

She said the decision to scrap the two bodies was effectively "abolishing the independent voice for rural communities and creating a race to the bottom in wages for rural workers who are already feeling the squeeze."