The SNP has called out the Tories for being out of touch, and out of step, with what Scotland’s farmers and crofters want.
Tory MSPs ignored the views and wishes of all of Scotland’s main farming and crofting organisations, as they supported attempts to bring in new laws that would restrict Scottish ministers from introducing a more progressive payment system for farmers.
During the Stage 3 debate on the Scottish Government’s Agriculture Bill this afternoon, the Tories were repeatedly warned that the purpose clause they were supporting would prevent changes being made to the current CAP system– even after the EU has moved on to a more progressive system.
It is the second time in a week Scottish Tories have acted against the best interests of Scotland’s farmers and crofters.
Last week the Tories’ former Rural Economy spokesperson, Peter Chapman MSP, shocked Parliament by announcing he doesn’t care about the views of the NFUS – proclaiming they are ‘wrong, wrong, wrong’ about Westminster’s controversial internal market proposals.
Commenting, SNP MSP Maureen Watt (pictured) said:
“The threat posed by the Tory party to Scotland’s rural economy has never been clearer.
“They are putting at risk both food standards and thousands of jobs in the rural economy.
“The Tories are showing their true colours –they care most about their big landowner chums and not about those who produce food in this country.
“They are out of touch and out of step with our farming community.
“It takes real arrogance to think a party run from Westminster by a gang of Etonians knows more about Scottish agriculture policy than the crofters and farmers themselves.
“The industry has been treated contemptuously from the Tories in recent years, with the threat of a Tory Trump trade deal, a power grab on Holyrood and a disastrous No-Deal Brexit on the horizon.
“Scotland’s farmers and crofters deserve so much better than this and I hope the penny has dropped that they simply can’t trust Boris Johnson’s puppets in Scotland to put their best interests first.”
