Tory MPs urge PM to spend billions of post-Brexit farm subsidies into environmental issues
A large number of Conservative MPs have urged Thersa May to pump billions of pounds of post-Brexit farm subsidies towards environmental matters.
The 36 MPs wrote a letter to the PM, urging May to maintain a strong stance for protecting wildlife and water provided by EU directives.
British farmers receive approximately £3billion a year through the EU's CAP.
But the Tory MPs would like the PM to “take advantage of the repatriation of CAP by shifting subsidies in favour of paying farmers for delivering services for the environment and public good”.
The Environment Secretary, Andrea Leadsom, will be in charge of directing a new subsidy scheme in a post-Brexit UK.
In August, the National Trust released a statement on a reform of farm support, proposing a system which is more environmentally friendly.
The conservation organisation said that reforms are needed to "reverse decades of damage to the countryside we love."
It called on government to put the "recovery" and "future resilience" of the natural environment at the heart of any funding system that replaces CAP.
"Taxpayers should only pay public subsidy to farmers in return for things that the market won’t pay for but are valued and needed by the public," said National Trust Director-General Dame Helen Ghosh.
But the National Farmers Union hit back, saying the 'damaged countryside' isn't a picture many farmers, or visitors to the countryside, recognise.
'Massive opportunity for our environment'
The Tory MPs who signed the letter include former environment ministers Caroline Spelman and Richard Benyon, the current chair of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee, Neil Parish, and Zac Goldsmith, member of the environmental audit select committee.
The letter, obtained by the Guardian, reads: "Done properly, Brexit is a massive opportunity for our environment.
"We are urging the PM to put existing EU environmental protections into British law and to honour the green manifesto commitments we made before the election in full.
"But more than that, Brexit allows us to repatriate and reform the environmentally disastrous CAP to make sure farm subsidies are there to pay for environmental and public services. The upside is enormous," wrote Zac Goldsmith.
May's environmental credentials thus far in her Premiership include banning plastic microbeads and expanding the controversial badger cull.
The Conservative MPs who signed the letter are: Zac Goldsmith, Richard Benyon, Alex Chalk, Andrew Mitchell, Anne Main, Ben Howlett, Bernard Jenkin, Caroline Spelman, Charlotte Leslie, Cheryl Gillan, David Warburton, Derek Thomas, Flick Drummond, Heidi Allen, James Gray, Jason McCartney, Jeremy Lefroy, Jo Churchill, Kevin Hollinrake, Kit Malthouse, Marcus Fysh, Maria Caulfield, Matthew Offord, Neil Carmichael, Neil Parish, Nicolas Soames, Oliver Colvile, Paul Scully, Peter Bottomley, Richard Graham, Sarah Wollaston, Scott Mann, Stephen Hammond, Tania Mathias, Victoria Borwick, Will Quince.
