Ukip's manifesto shows pledges to create UK Single Farm Payment

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall visiting Grimsby Fish Market (Photo: @paulnuttallukip)
Ukip leader Paul Nuttall visiting Grimsby Fish Market (Photo: @paulnuttallukip)

Ukip has released its general election manifesto, pledging to create a UK Single Farm Payment (SFP) as a replacement for the CAP.

The party said that farmers will be nervous about what might replace the CAP and the subsidy system they have become used to for over forty years.

The manifesto states: "When we leave the EU, we will leave the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and regain the power to prioritise our own farming objectives, boost our own food security, reform our attitude to farming, animal welfare and wildlife management, and reinvigorate our rural economy."

Ukip says the SFP will be 'more ethical'. It will end 'EU discrimination' in favour of larger, intensive farms, and support smaller enterprises.

Subsidies will be capped at £120,000 per year and will be made to make sure payments reach farmers, not just 'wealthy landowners'.

Animal welfare and environment

The party says it will also ban live exports for slaughter, and label food that has been ritually killed as halal or shechita.

It also pledges to install CCTV in every abattoir or slaughterhouse.

On the environment, Ukip states: "The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy has damaged our countryside. The Common Fisheries Policy has devastated fish stocks around our coastline. The way the EU – and our government – embraced diesel proved to be disastrous, even fatal.

Ukip said it will promote 'evidence-based' environmental schemes, and safeguard protection for Britain’s countryside using a new Environment Protection Act.

Other farming manifestos

In the Conservative manifesto, they pledge to bring 'sustainable growth' to farming communities, create a new agri-environment scheme and introduce mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses.

Labour has also launched their manifesto. The manifesto pledges an end to the badger cull, a ban on neonicotinoids and the promotion of ‘cruelty free farming’.

The Liberal Democrats has unveiled their manifesto, saying that UK farming will be in 'huge danger' of leaving EU. They propose a second referendum.

Welsh political party Plaid Cymru has also released their manifesto, calling for a Brexit deal which best represents Welsh agriculture.

Numerous rural organisations have released their own manifestos, including the NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland, the CLA, the Soil Association, the Tenant Farmers' Association, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the British Veterinary Association, the Farmers' Union of Wales, the Ulster Farmers' Union, the Agricultural Industries Confederation and the Countryside Alliance.