Sustainable Farming Incentive

Rebecca Smith Excerpts

Thursday 15th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Morgan]

My hon. Friend will know that we were responding to our settlement from the Treasury. There is always more we can do. That is why we published our farming road map earlier this year, which sets out the direction of travel that we want to take when it comes to building a more resilient, productive farming sector, working in partnership with the sector to deliver nature-friendly farming.

[Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)]

On 21 September, my constituent spent the day with the Minister. It was unsurprising then that on 22 September he went to market. However, he got home at 3.50 pm to complete his agreement, which had already been worked on, to find that he was two minutes too late and £50,000 down as a result. He said:

“I am jumping mad! This is a”—

insert expletive here—

“show! How can anyone be expected to manage a small business and compete in a fastest-to-the-button lottery like this?”

How would the Minister have felt if he had had to apply for his parliamentary seat in that way?

[Stephen Morgan]

I thank the hon. Member for her question and for encouraging me to visit Dartmoor recently. I know she was not able to join me, but it was a very insightful visit. I absolutely recognise the human difficulties for farmers who have not been able to apply for the scheme this year. If she has particular examples—as she has just described—that she wants to feed into me, it is really important that I hear them, so I thank her again. There is wider support available for farmers that we can signpost people to via the blog post on the DEFRA website.