Emma McClarkin MEP fights EU cash raid on East Midlands farms

Conservative MEPs, including East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin, have this week condemned a move in the European Parliament to discriminate against British farmers and penalise efficient land-management.

Miss McClarkin spoke out after the European Parliament in Strasbourg approved a Commission proposal to place an arbitrary £5,000 threshold on full payment of the Single Farm Payment under the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy. Above that threshold, farmers could lose nearly five per cent of their total payment (4.7%).

The National Farmers Union estimates that British farming could lose £20m a year.

Miss McClarkin said: “We would entirely approve of a wholesale revision of the CAP, Single Farm Payments and subsidies as a whole – but that is not what this is. Instead it is a blatant attempt to target member states – including the UK, Germany and Czech Republic – where farms tend to be larger.

“Bigger farms are generally better-run and more efficient, so we are effectively looking at a tax on good farming.

“It is a ruse to divert money away from some countries and towards others. British farmers – including those in the East Midlands – are being eyed up as the victims. We will fight to protect them.”