Region's Farming Needs Betrayed By Tories (North East Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats)

North East Hertfordshire Liberal Democrats <bob.young@ntlworld.com>

Region's Farming Needs Betrayed By Tories

May 21, 2009 11:00 AM
Originally published by Andrew Duff MEP

Andrew Duff, Liberal Democrat Euro MP for the East of England, will join the NFU regional hustings meeting in Newmarket tonight.

He will accuse the Conservative Party of letting down British agriculture by leaving the majority European People's Party in the European Parliament to form a new nationalist, rightwing grouping. Duff argues that the case for UK farming is best argued within the mainstream political groups in the Parliament because they carry the most influence and take the effective decisions.

Duff will say: "Agriculture in this region is competitive by any European standards and key to our continued prosperity. 50,000 people are employed directly in food production and countryside management. It is vital that the interests of our arable, horticulture, sugar beet and pig and poultry farms are well represented in Brussels by MEPs who carry weight.

"David Cameron's decision to wander off to the far right of the Parliament will seriously weaken the national interest. It is a case of europhobic dogma winning over practical politics.

"The present chair of the Parliament's agriculture committee is a British Tory MEP. Mr Cameron has seen to it that it will never be so again."

Andrew Duff, who is one of the main architects of the Treaty of Lisbon, will also argue that the new powers for MEPs on offer under the reform treaty are a great breakthrough for farming.

"The European Parliament is set to gain full powers of co-decision over all aspects of CAP, including spending. This is not a time for British politicians to be walking off the European playing field."

END