MP Greg Stafford - Farmers protest - video Dailymotion

MP Greg Stafford speaks to The Herald and Post about the impact of the budget on farmers as the farmers protest takes place at Westminster.

Transcript

00:00So I'm here today supporting my local farmer, the farmers in the Farnham and Borden constituency,

00:05who've been writing to me about the terrible impact that the Labour's change to the inheritance

00:10tax is going to have on their local farmers. But it's not just inheritance tax, it's national

00:14insurance contributions, it's minimum wage, and the government is claiming this is only

00:18going to affect the big landowners, the corporates. It's not true. I've been talking to Bob, who's

00:23a farmer from Rumford today, and he's absolutely devastated that he's perhaps going to have

00:27to sell his farm, his son's not going to be able to inherit, and this is going to have

00:31a really big impact, not just actually on the farmers, but actually on all of us, because

00:35if we don't have food security, if we lose our small farmers, then we won't have the

00:39people growing and producing food in our constituency, and that will hit us all.

00:44And do you think it's been made worse possibly by the Brexit situation at all, the situation

00:50of the farmers?

00:51I mean, farming has always been tough, but why is the government making it tougher? I

00:55mean, if they want to kill off small local farmers like the ones in my constituency,

00:59then they're going the best way about it. So what I say to them is just rethink. You've

01:03made a mistake, you've made a terrible mistake, but it's not too late to change your mind

01:07and support farmers in this constituency.

01:09And if anyone has any concerns, should just feel free for them to reach out to you?

01:13Absolutely, come and speak to me. If they're members of the NFU, you can speak to them

01:16as well, but I've been speaking to farmers across the constituency, and I'm very happy

01:21to guide them to come see me, or me to go and see them and their farmers.