2194 viewsEnvironment Secretary Elizabeth Truss threw her weight behind the campaign to keep the UK in the European Union when she addressed farmers attending the annual conference of the National Farmers Union in Birmingham.
The Secretary of State, whose own Farming Minister, George Eustice, is campaigning to leave the EU, said that membership of the single market was worth billions to the UK farming industry. Leaving would be a leap into the unknown, she said.
Free range egg producer and UKIP MEP Stuart Agnew insisted that the UK had nothing to fear from going independent.
He told farmers attending a poultry session at the conference that the UK was perfectly capable of running its own affairs, although NFU president Meurig Raymond expressed concern about the possibility of farmers losing access to the single European market.
The Secretary of State also responded to a question about avian influenza during a press briefing at the conference. She said that the Government was doubling its investment in its capacity to respond to animal disease.
