Leaving the EU: the Rural Economy

Rishi Sunak Excerpts

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak (Richmond (Yorks)) (Con)]

I received a letter from a local farmer last year. He had been informed that he could no longer grow cabbages because the EU considered them to be too similar to cauliflowers for compliance with the three-crop rule. Turnips, he was helpfully advised, would be more acceptable. Agriculture and food and drink are great British success stories, yet for half a century they have been held back by the ceaseless meddling of Brussels’s self-appointed vegetable police.

There are three simple reasons why leaving the EU represents an opportunity for the rural economy. Every year UK farmers receive some £3 billion of payments from the CAP, and some people act as if that money is a gift bestowed upon us by Brussels. The truth is that that money is the money of British taxpayers, who every year make a net contribution of £9 billion to the EU budget. With that money returned, we could fund Britain’s agricultural policy three times over. The difference will be that we have the freedom to provide funding for British farmers, and for the needs of British farmers, without smothering them with European regulations that they do not need.

The second benefit to our rural economy will be for the food industry and trade. Food demand is projected to grow by 70% in the coming decades, which is a huge opportunity for British food producers. The demand is being driven by China, Brazil, the US and India, all of which are countries that the EU has entirely failed to sign a free trade agreement with. With British trade policy back in British hands, we can sign a new generation of free trade agreements, allowing our companies to fulfil their enormous potential abroad. Lastly, rural businesses will gain enormously from the freedoms Brexit will give us to invest in infrastructure.

After we leave the EU, that box-ticking bureaucracy, a Government elected by the British people will be able to help to fund the roll-out of better broadband to rural areas without having to wait a year for compliance with the European Union’s inflexible state aid rules. As wonderful as Provence is, it is not the Yorkshire dales. As dramatic as Seville’s orange groves are, they are not Dartmoor and Exmoor. Our rural areas are not the same as those of the 27 other European countries. Outside the EU we can design the policies that work specifically for our rural communities, and use our new-found freedoms to create a rural economy more robust and dynamic than ever before.