With just ten days to go before Britons go to the polls to decide on the country’s future relationship with the EU, the Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA) has called on Defra and the devolved governments to ensure adequate work on farm policy is being done, whatever the outcome of next week’s referendum.

TFA, along with other rural groups, has been critical of the government’s silence on what agriculture policy moves could be expected if Britain does cede from the EU. Government ministers backing the Remain campaign, including Defra secretary Liz Truss, have said a vote to leave would be “A leap in the dark,” though frustrated farm groups have complained that their silence on the issue has made reasoned debate on the EU Referendum almost impossible for farmers.  

On Monday, TFA Chief Executive George Dunn said “Whether the EU Referendum produces a majority in favour of leaving or remaining in the EU, UK Governments should waste no time in developing thinking on what farm policy should look like for these islands.  Obviously if there is a vote to leave the EU we will be in a position of having to consider radical changes but even if there is a vote to stay we must lead the debate, which is already underway within Europe, on the future for the Common Agricultural Policy”.

“In a Brexit scenario there will be a substantial number of issues to deal with and the farming voice must not be lost in negotiations which take place to separate ourselves from the EU and in building new policy frameworks for the way ahead.”

The TFA chief executive continued, “In the event that the Referendum produces a majority in favour of remaining in the EU, it will be just as important to gain early traction on the development of ideas for the next reform of the CAP which is now only a few short years away and around which views are already being developed in European institutions and in other Member States.  We will not want to be behind the curve in seeking to influence the debate for the benefit of domestic producers and consumers.”

Defra is in Purdah ahead of the referendum, so civil servants can’t comment on any policy developments, but the Prime Minister responded to similar criticisms levelled by landowners’ group the CLA in April.

In his response, Mr Cameron, who is championing the Remain campaign ahead of the election, warned of potential impacts on the rural economy if Britain were to become the first member state to leave the EU. He said, “We know that no existing alternative to EU membership - whether Norway, Switzerland, Canada or WTO - offers full access to the EU single market for farmers. All involve tariffs and additional costs.”

Though members of the Leave campaign have promised that support payments could be maintained or even increased in an independent Britain, experts have pointed out that the campaign’s representatives are not in power and so not in a position to deliver on their promises. UK governments both Labour and Conservative have a track record of pushing for reduced farm payments within the EU, though the PM did say that “I would make sure that an agricultural support system would be properly maintained.”

However, he offered few other details of what to expect if his campaign loses out in next week’s vote. Mr Cameron said “The only way… to reduce red tape and modernise regulation” is within the EU.

On Monday, Mr Dunn said, “Those in the Brexit camp have been keen to highlight the importance of continuing to support farming if the UK was to leave the EU and the TFA will press to ensure that the farming voice is heard loud and clear from the start of any process to develop independent policy frameworks.”

Mr Dunn said,“The TFA has attempted to speak into the vacuum left by the Government on what the UK might do if it repatriated agricultural support in a Brexit scenario.”

The union published a wish list of policy demands in late April, which Mr Dunn said on Monday “Will be the place we will start in the event of a vote to leave the EU.”  He went on, “However, we have also focused on reforms that we will need to see to the CAP in the event that we remain members of the EU including a better definition of active farmer, placing sensible ceilings on direct payments, moving towards a better reward structure for agri-environment schemes and abolishing the ability for landlords to enter agri-environment schemes on land occupied by farm tenants.”

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