NSA troubled by chaos of government and impact on future farming policy
20th October 2022
The National Sheep Association (NSA) is joining the nation in waving goodbye to yet another Prime Minister today (Thursday 20th October).
Liz Truss has been in office for just 45 days - the shortest tenure of any UK prime minister.
NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker says: “Today’s resignation of the Prime Minister shows yet more distrust running rampant through the current UK Government and causes further turmoil for industries across the country. Not only will the loss of another Prime Minister be a huge blow to any kind of continuity we might have expected to develop but it also puts the whole ministerial team at risk of another huge upheaval, especially if calls for a General Election are met.”
Trouble began when Liz Truss’ first Chancellor Kwasi Kwateng, spooked the financial markets with his mini budget on 23rd September and although there was promise of the Energy Price Guarantee, that was swiftly dampened when new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, stepped in to post. Since then, widespread anger amongst the Conservative party has seemingly grown. NSA is concerned about the impact this will have on the farming sector.
Mr Stocker continues: “Farmers across the UK have been struggling for the past 12 months with severely increased costs sometimes up to 150% over what they were paying for inputs before the war in Ukraine. This, coupled with little assurance or direction on future farming schemes and policy is making it incredibly difficult for farm businesses across the country to survive without building significant debt over the next six months.
“The people of Great Britain are struggling with a drastic rise in living costs and businesses are finding it impossible to be able to plan or have any certainty over the future 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. It means prices are rising at their fastest rate for 40 years. Whatever government that can now be scratched together must commit to understanding the British industry across its departments and realise the value of Britain as a food-producing nation. NSA is concerned that we may now see another ministerial reshuffle enforced, with the last six weeks simply causing disruption and a loss of confidence in agricultural and environmental policy.”
