Farmers say they will vote to leave EU

Results of a poll which show more than half of farmers will vote to leave the EU has been welcomed in South Holland.

Local Vote Leave co-ordinator for South Holland & The Deepings, Craig Jackson has welcomed the results of the Farming Weekly poll which shows that 58 per cent of those farmers polled will support Brexit.
Mr Jackson said: “South Holland, Lincolnshire and East Anglia are the bread basket of Britain, and our farming community has been calling for a level playing field in Europe for decades without success.
“On June 23 our rural economy has the opportunity to vote for a system of subsidies tailored to meet the needs of British farming; an end to the hated ‘basic payment system’; fair labelling; and a requirement for imported food stuffs to meet the same high animal welfare standards of food produced in Lincolnshire and Britain.
“We can also work with our farmers to target our money on environmental protection, conservation and flood defences.
“We will be in a position not to just protect farmers’ subsidies, but, if we wish to, even increase them like non-EU Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Lincolnshire’s rural economy to ‘Vote Leave’ and take back control.
“Germany, France and our other European competitors cherry pick the EU laws they wish to comply with while British farmers play by the rules.
“We will be able to deliver the level playing field our farmers have been calling for.”
Commenting on the poll, Farming Minister George Eustice MP said: “It is no surprise that farmers want to leave the EU. Virtually every problem they bring to me is a direct consequence of dysfunctional EU rules and regulations.”.