EU threatens to slash huge annual payments to Britains wealthiest landowners

Some of Britain's wealthiest landowners, including the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Westminster, would see their farm subsidies drastically reduced under plans by Brussels to impose, for the first time, a cap on the amount of money that individual farmers can claim.

The proposal, being drawn up by the European Commission, is the first attempt in years to tackle the scandal of giant agri-businesses and millionaire barley barons – as opposed to smallholders and family farmers – being the chief beneficiaries of the Common Agricultural Policy. The plans, due to be submitted for consultation with EU member states on 20 November, will suggest that some of the largest payments to super-rich landowners and industrial farms could be reduced by as much as 45 per cent.

Disclosures over the past two years have shown that Britain's elite landowners harvest the lion's share of farming subsidies – a consistent source of embarrassment for the EU's farm policy which is supposed to provide a reasonable standard of living for poor farmers struggling to compete in the global market, not redistribute taxpayers' money into the hands of a few millionaires.