The UK government has “sent shockwaves” across the farming sector due to funding changes announced in the Budget, a union has said.

Martin Kennedy, president of the National Farmers’ Union Scotland (NFUS), led a protest outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Thursday, calling on the Scottish Government to ring-fence agricultural funding to Scotland in its December 4 budget statement.

He was joined by hundreds of farmers, farmers and farm workers, and told them the UK government had thrown the existing financial framework across the industry “out the window”.

He said: “On October 30, the new Labor government sent shockwaves through the entire UK agricultural sector. It was truly devastating – it sent shockwaves through all of us.

“Not only on the agricultural and commercial property relief issues that we’ve been talking about, and which were very much highlighted last week in London, but importantly, it’s just as important as the finance element.

“The funding element is very important because it is the catalyst for what we do. The earmarked fund we had here was £620 million. For over 50 years we have had a multi-year fund dedicated to Scottish agriculture.

“First of all, in Europe there is a seven-year multi-annual financial framework, and after Brexit we had a five-year multi-annual financial framework so we can plan ahead.

“The Labor government has thrown that out the window.

“They completely washed their hands of it. They told the decentralized parliaments: “you do what you want with agriculture”.

“Agriculture is decentralized, and that’s very good; policy is decentralized, as is funding, which is now part of the overall grant. So we have no security and no idea how much the Scottish Government is going to commit to Scottish agriculture in the future.

He said the Scottish budget was going to be “absolutely critical” and he wanted to see the government set aside the £620 million, saying there was no reason why it should not.

He told the crowd: “They have benefited from a £3.4 billion increase in the block grant to Scotland, which is an 8.1% increase in their overall budget.

“We are calling on the Scottish Government to not only set aside the £620m, but also add the £80m it has traditionally spent on block grant or farm funding, plus the £50m which represents 8.1%. an increase in funding, and let’s not forget the £46 million that has yet to return to our wallet because it belonged to us before it was withdrawn.

“We need to see this on December 4.”

Other NFUS speakers echoed Mr Kennedy’s message to the Scottish Government, as did a number of political figures, including Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay.

Mr Findlay warned the agricultural sector is under “critical threat like never before”, and said a number of NFU members had already told him of their fears over funding.

“I have heard loud and clear the many concerns, one of the biggest being uncertainty over funding,” he said.

“Since then the situation has become even worse due to Sir Keir Starmer’s budget, in which he decided that agricultural finances would no longer be earmarked when sent to the Scottish Government, which of course means that there is a very real risk that, being in the general government spending budget in Edinburgh, it risks being spent on something else.

“My party will do everything in its power to ensure funding is secured and earmarked. »

He went on to denounce the changes to farm property support as “extremely damaging”, warning that some farms could have to close their doors as a result.

He said: “I actually think it was malicious and could mean the difference between farms being able to continue operating and not being able to. Labor can and must change course.

“I will do everything as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party to make sure they listen to you.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton told the rally: “The budget, I think, is a new era for farming in Scotland because the £620 million is now going directly to the Scottish Government.

“We need to make sure that this money is earmarked and goes directly to agriculture, but beyond that there is a real increase in real terms in the money that we invest in agriculture, because it is the agricultural machinery room. our economy.

“This is very important for Scotland, for our food security, our national heritage and our environmental sustainability.

Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon and Finance Secretary Shona Robison sent a joint letter to Treasury Chief Secretary Darren Jones on Thursday.

The letter expressed the Scottish Government’s “shock and concern” at the decision to apply the Barnett formula to future farm and marine funding, and warned that changes to inheritance tax could become a “barrier” or “may be even bigger than that” for tenants. farmers.

The Scottish and UK governments have been contacted for comment.

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