THE title of Mel Stride's article, “We must do all we can to support farmers, says MP”, (Courier, May 23), is blatant hypocrisy. 

The Conservatives’ total disinterest in our farming community is all too apparent in the trade deals with Australia and New Zealand through which the government, of which Mel Stride is a part, will give tariff-free access for their beef and lamb to the UK market. 

The NFU warned that the deals “will jeopardise our own farming industry and could cause the demise of many, many beef and sheep farms throughout the UK”. 

When even the Department for International Trade's own assessment stated that the agriculture sector was “expected...to contract” due to the Australia deal, we know the government has no interest in supporting farmers in Devon and across the country. 

This was a deal hastily negotiated with the lack of care and competence we’ve since come to expect from Liz Truss.  

And since then, George Eustice, who was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has said that the deal “gave away far too much for far too little in return” and “was not actually a very good deal”. 

Farmers have suffered a chaotic transition from the old BPS (Basic Payment Scheme) to the new post Brexit subsidy system, the ELM (Environmental Land Management Initiative), with BPS subsidies halved and the new subsidies not matching the promised equivalent. A recent NFU study found that upland farms, such as those on Dartmoor, had lost on average 37 per cent of their support payments under the current SFI (Sustainable Farming Incentive) and CS (Countryside Stewardship) options. 

Labour wants a new deal for farmers – making the ELM work and not leaving farmers out of pocket. We want to back British farmers and support high quality local produce.  

We want a new veterinary deal for farmers with a new veterinary agreement with the EU to cut costs and red tape for food exports. We want to make sure at least half of all food in hospitals, schools and prisons is British. 

Farmers and the food industry are vital to the economy here in Devon. We desperately need change and we desperately need a Labour MP working for our rural community in a new Labour government.  

It’s time for a decade of national renewal with the countryside at its heart. 

Ollie Pearson 

Labour parliamentary candidate for Central Devon