Rishi Sunak will be the UK's next prime minister after winning the Conservative Party leadership contest, with rural campaigners saying the challenges ahead for him are 'significant and complex'.
The ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer - who oversaw the UK's finances during the Covid-19 pandemic - was the only contender to gain enough backing from Tory MPs.
In a televised address to the public on Monday afternoon (24 October), he first paid tribute to Liz Truss and then went on to warn of a "profound" economic crisis.
"We now need stability and unity," Mr Sunak said during the short address, "I will make it my utmost priority to bring our party and our country together.
"Because that is the only way we will overcome the challenges we face and build a better, more prosperous future for our children and our grandchildren."
It comes as farmers across the UK have been struggling for the past 12 months with severely increased costs, with some 150% over what they were paying for inputs before the war in Ukraine.
The latest inflation figures show the cost of living went up 10.1% in the 12 months to September, driven mostly by rising food prices.
Together with little assurance on future post-Brexit farming schemes and severe labour shortages, these issues are making it difficult for farm businesses to survive.
Responding to today's development, rural campaigners at the Countryside Alliance called on Mr Sunak to take the issue of UK food security more seriously.
As the MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire - a rural constituency - Mr Sunak said in the summer he would "protect our countryside".
Writing in the Alliance’s membership magazine 'My Countryside', he said: "In short my mission has always been to do things “for” rural communities, not “to” them.”
“Farming is part of the DNA of my constituency - from the Upper Dales to Great Ayton, from sheep to dairy to arable, through Auction Marts at Hawes, Leyburn and Northallerton.
"Food production and food security have never been so important and I will always back our farmers, to whom we owe so much.
"They - and our wider rural communities - are part of the solution to the environmental challenges we face, not the problem”.
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, warned that the challenges ahead were 'significant and complex' for farming and rural businesses across the country.
However, he added that Mr Sunak would "know the anxieties many in the countryside face in relation to the cost of living crisis".
Mr Bonner said: "Food security and the transition of farm support to help tackle the huge challenges of climate change and reversing biodiversity decline are also high on his government’s agenda."
"As a rural campaigning organisation we look forward to working with the new government to ensure the rural way of life is protected and the countryside is never just a second thought.”
