Farming needs its own cabinet minister, says Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski

Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, said there was a need for a minister to be appointed to deal specifically with farming matters.

At the moment, agricultural matters come under the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), headed by George Eustice. Victoria Prentis is the minister for state responsible for farming fisheries and food, but does not attend cabinet.

But Mr Kawczynski said this meant farming was often a "forgotten footnote" at the end of a long-line of responsibilities.

He said he had asked a number of the Conservative Party leadership candidates who had contacted him over the past few days for an assurance that a new ministry of agriculture would be set up if they were successful.

He said in a post-Brexit world, where Westminster was 100 per cent responsible for agricultural policy, it was essential that there was a specific secretary of state for agriculture in the cabinet.

"Food security is becoming more and more critical, and we need to attract the brightest talents into industry to help with increasing production and exports," said Mr Kawczynski.

"In Shropshire and many others parts of Britain, agriculture plays an essential role in our economy and so much more can and must be achieved.

"My experience of current Defra is that this critical industry is a forgotten footnote at the end of a long list of duties at ministry.

"We need a department to focus on environment, recycling climate change and all other environmental priorities but we also need a department which purely focuses with laser-like precision on agriculture. We have the people skills, agricultural institutions, soil, climate conditions to become the top European producer of agricultural products - it’s time we start now."