A British farmer has issued a stark warning after Labour's latest blow to the agricultural industry, as he told GB News how the community is being "continually hit" by measures and cuts by the Government.
Sir Keir Starmer's Government has now paused post-Brexit subsidies to boost food production without warning, following their inheritance tax raid on farmers.
National Farmers' Union President Tom Bradshaw has condemned the move as "another shattering blow" to farmers, with the Government insistent that they are "proud to have set the biggest budget for sustainable food produce in history".
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner added: "More farmers are now in schemes and more money is being spent through them than ever before. That is true today and will remain true tomorrow."
Hitting out at the latest decision by Labour, farmer Andrew Ward said the pausing of the SFI (Sustainable Farming Incentive) scheme will have an immediate impact on Britain's wildlife.
Ward told GB News: "The problem we've got is that we just seem to be continually hit with one thing after another.
"And I'm stood at the moment in the middle of an open field in Lincolnshire. Over my shoulder on my right, we have got what we call a countryside stewardship area that's in this SFI."
Detailing the importance of the scheme to his farm, Ward added: "It's a scheme where we put environmental areas into it, we get paid to do them, and they're in areas sometimes that have been in a long while, such as these behind me.
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"It benefits wildlife, it benefits the environment, it benefits nature. But all of a sudden the Government has said as of 6pm last night, they are stopping any more applications for it. They should be giving six weeks notice that they're going to do this - they have gave half an hour's notice."
Hitting out at the Labour Government's decision to issue "another blow" to workers, Ward told GB News: "We've been in these schemes now for 20 years.
"This was an alternative scheme, and we were told that it was a scheme that we could manage ourselves, that we would be bespoke to every farmer in the country, and a lot of farmers went into them because we all want to help the environment as well as producing food.
"And then for it to suddenly get knocked on the head is another massive hammer blow to us."
Emphasising how this will affect Britain's wildlife as a result, Ward explained that it is "not just farmers" that will suffer, it's the wildlife too.
Ward said: "It's not also a hammer blow to farmers, it's a hammer blow to wildlife, because over the years we've built up lots of wildlife on the farm.
"We have feeders all around the area where we encourage songbirds to feed, and all these things are going to suffer.
"It's not just farmers, wildlife is going to suffer massively. And I just don't know why the Government are trying to do this."
In a pointed attack on Labour, Ward concluded: "They've got this vendetta again against farming, against the countryside, and they just keep turning the screw and turning the screw even more, and it just cannot go on."
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Sir Keir Starmer's Government has now paused post-Brexit subsidies to boost food production without warning, following their inheritance tax raid on farmers.
National Farmers' Union President Tom Bradshaw has condemned the move as "another shattering blow" to farmers, with the Government insistent that they are "proud to have set the biggest budget for sustainable food produce in history".
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner added: "More farmers are now in schemes and more money is being spent through them than ever before. That is true today and will remain true tomorrow."
Hitting out at the latest decision by Labour, farmer Andrew Ward said the pausing of the SFI (Sustainable Farming Incentive) scheme will have an immediate impact on Britain's wildlife.
Ward told GB News: "The problem we've got is that we just seem to be continually hit with one thing after another.
"And I'm stood at the moment in the middle of an open field in Lincolnshire. Over my shoulder on my right, we have got what we call a countryside stewardship area that's in this SFI."
Detailing the importance of the scheme to his farm, Ward added: "It's a scheme where we put environmental areas into it, we get paid to do them, and they're in areas sometimes that have been in a long while, such as these behind me.
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"It benefits wildlife, it benefits the environment, it benefits nature. But all of a sudden the Government has said as of 6pm last night, they are stopping any more applications for it. They should be giving six weeks notice that they're going to do this - they have gave half an hour's notice."
Hitting out at the Labour Government's decision to issue "another blow" to workers, Ward told GB News: "We've been in these schemes now for 20 years.
"This was an alternative scheme, and we were told that it was a scheme that we could manage ourselves, that we would be bespoke to every farmer in the country, and a lot of farmers went into them because we all want to help the environment as well as producing food.
"And then for it to suddenly get knocked on the head is another massive hammer blow to us."
Emphasising how this will affect Britain's wildlife as a result, Ward explained that it is "not just farmers" that will suffer, it's the wildlife too.
Ward said: "It's not also a hammer blow to farmers, it's a hammer blow to wildlife, because over the years we've built up lots of wildlife on the farm.
"We have feeders all around the area where we encourage songbirds to feed, and all these things are going to suffer.
"It's not just farmers, wildlife is going to suffer massively. And I just don't know why the Government are trying to do this."
In a pointed attack on Labour, Ward concluded: "They've got this vendetta again against farming, against the countryside, and they just keep turning the screw and turning the screw even more, and it just cannot go on."
Find Out More...