Farming Wales: Parties make general election pitch to protestors

Plaid Cymru said its priority was “to protect the future of our family farms”.

The party has pledge to give Wales a veto over future trade deals that “undermine Welsh agricultural communities” and says “in terms of funding, we must return to real terms pre-Brexit levels”.

The Welsh Conservatives said it was “proud to stand with the thousands [of farmers] who have attended protests across Wales”.

The party would “increase UK-wide farming investment by £1bn over the next five years… and ensure that the funding directed to the Welsh government for Welsh farmers increases with inflation,” a spokesman said, adding that the party wanted to see the Welsh government’s sustainable farming scheme reversed and redesigned.

Welsh Labour said a successful future for Welsh farming was about “producing food sustainably, looking after our environment and underpinning our rural communities, while also overcoming the climate and nature emergencies”.

The party added the sustainable farming scheme was “key to achieving this” – “we will continue to work in partnership with the farming community, environmental groups and others to finalise a scheme that works long-term”.

The Liberal Democrats has committed to an extra £1bn spend in the UK budget “to support profitable, sustainable, and nature-friendly farming”, which the party said would equate to an extra £50m for Wales.

The party said it would renegotiate “disastrous” trade deals with Australia and New Zealand and “give our farmers the ability to trade with our European neighbours” with minimal need for checks.

The Green Party said it would triple the money spent on agriculture in Westminster, “with equivalent funding available to the Welsh government” “in order to support the transition to sustainable farming”.

The party also says it will work with farmers and others to “transform our food and farming system” with “fair wages for growers” and aim to increase the amount of food grown and traded in the UK, “as locally as possible”.

Reform UK says it recognises the “critical importance” of agriculture to the Welsh economy, as well as the “challenges” facing farmers.

It says it “aims to ensure a prosperous future for Welsh agriculture” by increasing the farming budget to £3 billion.

It also intends to scrap “climate-related farming subsidies that do not directly benefit food production” and replacing them with direct payments to farmers as well as reducing “the bureaucratic burden on farmers”.