Forty-eight MPs and peers who own or manage farms claimed £5.7m in EU farming subsidies in 2017, an investigation has revealed.
Parliamentarians claimed millions in common agricultural policy (CAP) payments in 2017, analysis by the Guardian shows.
Records show that the largest single payment was made to Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, who received £473,000. He is the director of Norfolk Estate Farms Ltd.
However, he told the paper he did not receive any financial benefit. He said: “For the last 10 years the main thrust of the farming operation has been to try and find a middle way between sustainable food production and reversing the decline in many red-listed species of birds, broad leaf weeds, wild flowers and insects which used to be plentiful on arable farmland.”
Conservative MP for South Dorset, Richard Drax owns the 7,000-acre Charborough estate. He received £411,000.
Despite voting for Brexit in the European Union referendum, he admitted the subsidies he receives will be 'considerably reduced'.
Matt Ridley, the fifth Viscount Ridley, runs two firms, Blagdon Farming Ltd and Plessey Checks Farming Ltd, which received £316,000.
However, he said he is against farming subsidies: “I have argued against subsidies for farming in general, even though this is against my personal interest in the short run, but that some allowance may need to be made for the way British farmers are restricted in how they can farm competitively because of environmental and other rules.
“I’ve argued that environmental payments should be by results, rather than intentions, and would welcome moves in that direction post-Brexit, as implied in the agriculture bill,” he said.
In the future, farmers will receive money to make improvements to the environment under a new system of subsidies after the UK leaves the EU.
As part of Defra Secretary Michael Gove's 'green Brexit' pledge, farmers will be rewarded for planting wildlife habitats, woods, wildflower meadows and other environmental benefits. He has called the EU's CAP 'environmentally damaging and socially unjust '.
However, some farming bodies have concerns that Gove's commitment to a 'green Brexit' favours the environment at the expense of food production.
