Labor has been accused of ruining “Brexit freedom” with plans to cut £100m from the green farming budget and 10 former Tory environment ministers are calling on the government to increase spending.

Labor has been accused of scrapping UK Brexit independence amid fears that £100m will be cut from the green farming budget.

Ten former Tory environment secretaries, including Michael Gove, Mark Spencer and Andrea Leadsom, have asked ministers to give more funding to agriculture.

It comes after it was revealed last week that funding for the Land Management Environment Scheme (LMS) budget was in jeopardy as the new government tried to plug cost savings into a £600,000 black hole. 22 billion

The LMS was created after Brexit to replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which provided subsidies. Habitat creation on ‘local nature regeneration’ farms.

Former agriculture minister Mark Spencer told MailOnline: “The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy was bad for farmers and bad for the environment. Putting our own system in place to reward farmers for taking action to protect nature and build its resilience is one of the biggest benefits of Brexit.

It comes after it was revealed last week that funding for the Land Management Environment Scheme (LMS) budget was in jeopardy as the new government tried to plug cost savings into a £600,000 black hole. 22 billion

Elms was implemented after Brexit to replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidizes farms by creating “local nature regeneration” habitats.

“Our new farm payment system has already been successful, with increased adoption and support across the farming community. It would be a very short-term move for the new government to cut the agriculture budget. His claims about low spending in the budget will not go away: this money was meant to help farmers make the most of it and should now be reinvested to ensure we meet to our environmental targets.

“The risk of farmland flooding is increasing due to climate change and we need to do all we can to support our farmers in these difficult times. Instead of cutting the budget, ministers should increase it, at least in line with inflation, to show how important it is to protect our food security.’

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, former Tory ministers – four environment secretaries and six junior ministers – pointed out that the RSPB estimates the cuts would result in 29,000 hectares (71,000 acres) of less environmentally friendly farmland “in time when food security and our natural environment have never been more important.”

“When it comes to supporting farmers, strengthening food security and restoring nature, the government needs to put its money where its mouth is and keep the agriculture budget intact or, better yet, increase in line with inflation,” they wrote.

The letter was signed by Mr Spencer, Mr Gove, Mrs Leadsom, Therese Coffey, Theresa Villiers, Sir Robert Goodwill, Victoria Prentice, Rebecca Pow, Lord Goldsmith and David Routley.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU), which will hold a function in Parliament on Wednesday to mark British Farming Day, is calling on ministers to introduce a “renewed and improved” multi-year farm finance fund in October’s budget.

The NFU said the increased funding – £4bn for England, equivalent to £5.6bn for the whole of the UK – is essential to give farmers the confidence to invest in the future, making food sustainable and at reasonable price and protecting nature, energy security and the climate. Friendly agriculture.

Under the previous government, England had an annual agricultural budget of £2.4 billion, which moved from EU-era subsidies to green land management schemes (LMS) specifically for agricultural land, to pay for public goods such as healthy soils, water and habitat. creation

The NFU’s claim comes after reports that just £100m of budget spending could be returned to the Treasury, as part of efforts to plug a £22bn “black hole” in the country’s finances. .

Labor criticized the previous Tory government after the Department for the Environment’s (Defra) annual report on farming and rural programs revealed a £130m underspend in the 2023/2024 budget.

Labor criticized the previous Tory government after the Department for the Environment’s (Defra) annual report on farming and rural programs revealed a £130m underspend in the 2023/2024 budget.

It comes after spending more than £100m in each of the previous two years.

Food Security and Home Affairs Minister Daniel Zeichner said: “The previous Tory government has broken its promises to farmers again.

“They sold them with commercial agreements and then they didn’t deliver the money they promised.”

“A Labor government will restore the confidence and resilience of farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen our food security,” he promised.

But ministers also warned of the dire state of the UK’s finances, clashing with rural groups over farm funding, while wildlife groups joined forces with farmers to push for bigger budgets for nature-friendly farming. and meet goals to address them. Nature and climate crisis.

Ahead of the ceremony, NFU president Tom Bradshaw said British farmers and producers were “proud” to produce the raw materials for the UK’s £148bn food and drink sector, but the industry faced significant challenges. .

“Over the past 18 months we have seen a decline in farmer confidence, driven by record inflation, falling farm incomes and a changing climate with unprecedented weather patterns -ever causing incessant rain that left thousands of acres of land farms under water,” he said.

“While we were against it we always heard Labor say that national security is food security.

The Prime Minister, speaking at the NFU conference last year, promised that the Labor Party would aspire to govern every part of our country and on that basis seek a new relationship with the country and farming communities, a relationship based on respect and genuine. ‘. communication’.

“Now we have to realize that goal,” he said.

“Today we are calling on the Government to give real value to UK food security by delivering a renewed and increased multi-year agriculture budget of £5.6 billion on 30 October.

“This budget is vital to give Britain’s farmers and ranchers the confidence they need to invest in the future and create more jobs, as well as our shared ambitions to make domestic food more sustainable and at a reasonable price to realize our common ambitions for nature and energy security. and environmentally friendly environment. Agriculture,” he said.

The NFU said independent work commissioned by the Anderson Center suggested England needed an annual budget of £4bn.

This includes £2.7 billion to meet the Government’s environmental targets, as well as £615 million to increase productivity and £720 million to support the economic sustainability of agribusiness.

The NFU believes this will translate into a budget of around £5.6 billion across the UK.

The union wants Defra to be more transparent, to publish its impact assessments of the changes, including which high-income areas could be adversely affected, to share annual budget plans and carrying out an urgent review of elms to ensure that all farmers have access to them.

Bradshaw described the £130m underspend as a “kick in the teeth” and warned it was not spent because it was not needed, but because new land management projects were not completed on time.

He called on the government to invest in sustainable food production and transfer unspent funds to future budgets to meet statutory environmental targets.

Environment Secretary Steve Reid admitted that confidence among farmers is “at an all-time low, costs are rising, flooding is at an all-time low and bureaucracy is holding them back”.

He said: “The new government will bring stability and confidence back to the sector, introduce a new deal for farmers to boost rural economic growth and strengthen our food security.

“We will protect farmers from being shortchanged on trade deals, reduce energy bills by launching GB Energy, better protect them from floods and use the government’s own buying power for British goods.”

The government said it faced “difficult decisions” and that spending on Defra’s priorities would be determined as part of the next spending review.