Government’s refusal to legislate could lead to turmoil in traditionally Tory rural areas
Farmers facing one of their toughest years in recent memory have received little comfort this week from a usually reliable ally: the Conservative party.
Their pleas to the government to enshrine in law a commitment to the UK’s high standards of food safety and animal welfare were ignored. In a long and impassioned debate in the House of Commons on Monday, amendments to the agriculture bill that had almost universal backing from farming leaders were defeated, steamrollered under the government’s 80-strong majority.
