The government has admitted there is no 'Plan B' for farming if the UK decides to the leave the EU before the end of 2017 in a United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.
Environment Secretary Liz Truss admitted it was "not the case" that department officials were aspiring a contigency plan that would form the basis of UK agricultural policy should Britain vote to leave the EU.
She said: “That is not the case. We have teams in Defra working on animal and plant health, environmental improvement, increasing exports and supporting farmers. But we don’t have any team working on that.”
“We are pursuing a re-negotiation at the moment to get a better deal for Britain which we are going to put in front of the British people. We will need to see what we get when that referendum takes place,”
“There are clearly big benefits in being part of the EU in terms of access to the single market for farmers.
“There are also big questions to be discussed about bureaucracy, including the complexity of the CAP administration system. There are big costs as well.”
Earlier this week, NFU President insisted that the referedum could completely change the way agriculture operates.
Shadow Defra secretary Kerry McCarthy voiced concerns that the only reason the UK wants to stay in the EU was due to "jobs and investment" rather than real issues in farming, the environment and animal welfare.
Ms McCarthy criticised the Environment Secretary's stance: “It is very narrowly focused – I think we need to look at the Defra side of it far more. I agree that there ought to be a team within the department looking at it. If people were to make an informed decision, then that work needed to be done"
