Charles Hawes is a Parliamentary Researcher and former journalist at Farmers Guardian.
As the temperature reached 36.7°C, provisionally making it the hottest June day on record for the UK, the sight of the unrelenting AGA filled me with dread as I sat down with another farming family in a kitchen that felt even hotter than it did outside.
I have been talking to farmers to understand what they want from politics, and what the Conservative Party can do to make their jobs easier and earn their vote.
Back in November, Kemi Badenoch announced that a Conservative government would “protect farmers, keep their bills down, and get out of the way to make sure they’re free to get on with doing what they do best: producing the food this country relies on.”
I wanted to find out whether these were the issues farmers wanted us to focus on, and whether these promises would make their lives and jobs easier.
Perhaps owing to the heat of the room, the biggest concern for one Leicestershire farmer wasn’t inheritance tax or fly-tipping. It was water.
Many farmers are concerned that the country does not have the facilities to collect and store water. The last water reservoir to be built in the UK was Carsington in 1991, and since then, no new reservoirs have been built for water supply purposes.
That isn’t to say that farmers are unengaged in today’s politics, but the reality is that farmers rarely get the chance to get down to the detail of major policy because there are more pressing, perhaps smaller, but no less important issues affecting day-to-day life.
Another farmer who was President of his local NFU association is equally worried about the future of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The scheme replaced the EU’s Basic Payment Scheme after Brexit and pays farmers to carry out environmental work.
Farmers repeatedly told me that many members of the public believe the SFI is “free money” that requires no work, but that is not the case, as all work is inspected.
Crucially, the benefits are recognised by both farmers and environmental organisations such as the RSPB.
Ending the scheme would ring alarm bells across many British family farms. After all, would we really be content with leaving these tasks to our local councils?
As with many government schemes, there are piles of paperwork that come with them, and what farmers also say they want is less red tape.
For smaller family farms, paperwork is done in the evening after working all day. Unless, of course, you’re big enough to employ land agents and accountants.
DEFRA and its arm’s-length bodies have become bloated, with too many doing paperwork and not enough people on the ground. Almost every farmer I spoke to shared that view.
Fears about insufficient checks on illegal meat entering through ports mean British farmers are being undercut by imports produced to standards that would be illegal here, while also increasing the risk of another devastating animal disease outbreak, such as foot-and-mouth in 2001.
I believe much of the public assumes imported meat must meet the same standards as the meat we produce here. Most would be surprised to learn that’s not always the case.
Asked whether Reform had won over farmers, both old and young were cautious, yet tempted.
For the older generation I spoke to, the view was broadly that although Reform would probably look after farmers, Mr Farage’s character and his recent dubious gift left many reluctant to support him.
Although you would think this was good news for the Conservatives, what came across was not party loyalty but exhaustion with political promises.
One young farmer, who has worked on his family farm since he was 14, was adamant about one thing, Labour needed to be gone. I believe his reasoning wasn’t ideological so much as instinctive, a desire for change rather than political alignment.
If it means voting Reform to get Labour out, then so be it.
When asked whether they are optimistic about the future, there was no clear answer. But one message came through time and again. The resilience of British farmers.
One farmer described his visit to the local farmers’ market the day after Keir Starmer resigned, capturing the current relationship between farmers and politics.
Politics simply did not come up.
No mention of Keir, Kemi or Farage. No talk of resignations or replacements.
Another spoke about helping one another during the Somerset floods, organising supplies, and supporting each other through difficult times.
He added that if farmers were asked to go and clean up Birmingham, they’d do it. Just give them a couple of days.
If the Conservative Party wants to rebuild trust in the countryside, all farmers want is for farming to stop being made harder.
That means ensuring imported food meets UK standards, investing in water infrastructure for when droughts strike, supporting local abattoirs, rebuilding UK fertiliser production, and ensuring DEFRA focuses its resources where they matter most: biosecurity and food production.
And above all, remember that Britain’s family farms are businesses as well as our custodians of the countryside.
Farmers do not want special treatment. They understand that whichever party is in power, whatever policy arrives, or whatever the weather decides to do tomorrow, the work carries on. As Kemi recently said, “The government can’t control the weather, but it can help in some small ways.”
The Conservatives have long been seen as the natural party for farmers. If we want to be that party, we need to show that we have been listening.
By turning conversations into policy.
And remember, if you are ever looking for one place where politics briefly takes a back seat, go to your local farmers market.
You’ll find plenty of conversations, but not many people wanting to spend the morning talking about Westminster. And that, perhaps, says more than any polling data ever could.
Charles Hawes is a Parliamentary Researcher and former journalist at Farmers Guardian.
As the temperature reached 36.7°C, provisionally making it the hottest June day on record for the UK, the sight of the unrelenting AGA filled me with dread as I sat down with another farming family in a kitchen that felt even hotter than it did outside.
I have been talking to farmers to understand what they want from politics, and what the Conservative Party can do to make their jobs easier and earn their vote.
Back in November, Kemi Badenoch announced that a Conservative government would “protect farmers, keep their bills down, and get out of the way to make sure they’re free to get on with doing what they do best: producing the food this country relies on.”
I wanted to find out whether these were the issues farmers wanted us to focus on, and whether these promises would make their lives and jobs easier.
Perhaps owing to the heat of the room, the biggest concern for one Leicestershire farmer wasn’t inheritance tax or fly-tipping. It was water.
Many farmers are concerned that the country does not have the facilities to collect and store water. The last water reservoir to be built in the UK was Carsington in 1991, and since then, no new reservoirs have been built for water supply purposes.
That isn’t to say that farmers are unengaged in today’s politics, but the reality is that farmers rarely get the chance to get down to the detail of major policy because there are more pressing, perhaps smaller, but no less important issues affecting day-to-day life.
Another farmer who was President of his local NFU association is equally worried about the future of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The scheme replaced the EU’s Basic Payment Scheme after Brexit and pays farmers to carry out environmental work.
Farmers repeatedly told me that many members of the public believe the SFI is “free money” that requires no work, but that is not the case, as all work is inspected.
Crucially, the benefits are recognised by both farmers and environmental organisations such as the RSPB.
Ending the scheme would ring alarm bells across many British family farms. After all, would we really be content with leaving these tasks to our local councils?
As with many government schemes, there are piles of paperwork that come with them, and what farmers also say they want is less red tape.
For smaller family farms, paperwork is done in the evening after working all day. Unless, of course, you’re big enough to employ land agents and accountants.
DEFRA and its arm’s-length bodies have become bloated, with too many doing paperwork and not enough people on the ground. Almost every farmer I spoke to shared that view.
Fears about insufficient checks on illegal meat entering through ports mean British farmers are being undercut by imports produced to standards that would be illegal here, while also increasing the risk of another devastating animal disease outbreak, such as foot-and-mouth in 2001.
I believe much of the public assumes imported meat must meet the same standards as the meat we produce here. Most would be surprised to learn that’s not always the case.
Asked whether Reform had won over farmers, both old and young were cautious, yet tempted.
For the older generation I spoke to, the view was broadly that although Reform would probably look after farmers, Mr Farage’s character and his recent dubious gift left many reluctant to support him.
Although you would think this was good news for the Conservatives, what came across was not party loyalty but exhaustion with political promises.
One young farmer, who has worked on his family farm since he was 14, was adamant about one thing, Labour needed to be gone. I believe his reasoning wasn’t ideological so much as instinctive, a desire for change rather than political alignment.
If it means voting Reform to get Labour out, then so be it.
When asked whether they are optimistic about the future, there was no clear answer. But one message came through time and again. The resilience of British farmers.
One farmer described his visit to the local farmers’ market the day after Keir Starmer resigned, capturing the current relationship between farmers and politics.
Politics simply did not come up.
No mention of Keir, Kemi or Farage. No talk of resignations or replacements.
Another spoke about helping one another during the Somerset floods, organising supplies, and supporting each other through difficult times.
He added that if farmers were asked to go and clean up Birmingham, they’d do it. Just give them a couple of days.
If the Conservative Party wants to rebuild trust in the countryside, all farmers want is for farming to stop being made harder.
That means ensuring imported food meets UK standards, investing in water infrastructure for when droughts strike, supporting local abattoirs, rebuilding UK fertiliser production, and ensuring DEFRA focuses its resources where they matter most: biosecurity and food production.
And above all, remember that Britain’s family farms are businesses as well as our custodians of the countryside.
Farmers do not want special treatment. They understand that whichever party is in power, whatever policy arrives, or whatever the weather decides to do tomorrow, the work carries on. As Kemi recently said, “The government can’t control the weather, but it can help in some small ways.”
The Conservatives have long been seen as the natural party for farmers. If we want to be that party, we need to show that we have been listening.
By turning conversations into policy.
And remember, if you are ever looking for one place where politics briefly takes a back seat, go to your local farmers market.
You’ll find plenty of conversations, but not many people wanting to spend the morning talking about Westminster. And that, perhaps, says more than any polling data ever could.