Campaigners call for the Queen to lose her £700,000 in EU farming cash after Brexit
Her Majesty is one of many wealthy landowners to get large subsidies
THE QUEEN and other wealthy landowners should lose their farming subsidies after Brexit, campaigners said last night.
Her Majesty is one of many multi-millionaires to rake in huge subsidies from the EU because they own vast tracts of land in the countryside.
After Brexit, we will be free to choose our own farming policies - and now there are calls to start by lowering payments to the richest landholders.
One Labour MP said it was “indefensible” to hand over so much money to the wealthy, while another campaigner described it as a “no-brainer” to reform the system after Brexit.
The Queen’s Sandringham estate receives nearly £700,000 from the EU as part of the subsidy programme where the size of payments is linked directly to the amount of land owned.
And the Duchy of Cornwall, controlled by Prince Charles, gets £160,000 in the subsidies.
It is not just royals who rake it in from EU farm payments - entrepreneur James Dyson last year got £1.6million for his land, more than any other individual.
Other tycoons who make huge amounts of cash from rural subsidies include the Duke of Westminster, the Swedish boss of H&M and two racehorse owners from Arab royal families.
All the payments come from the EU as part of the controversial Common Agricultural Policy - meaning the Government is free to slash them after Brexit.
But ministers have vowed to protect the current level of subsidies, amid fears farmers will go bust without the EU cash.
Labour MP Chris Bryant called for rich landowners to lose their subsidies after Brexit.
He : “It’s completely indefensible. The only way we have been able to defend it in the past is that it is a European Union system.”
Oxford economist Dieter Helm, who is anti-Brexit, said that “the one shining opportunity is that we don’t have to be involved in this”.
He told the newspaper: “There is a natural evolution away from paying people who have several thousand acres and toward the smaller farms, which tend to be in the uplands. It’s a no-brainer.”
Environment Secretary Michael Gove suggested recently that Brexit would give the UK a chance to reform the subsidies system to support poorer farmers and protect the land, rather than shovelling cash to millionaires.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
Gail Soutar of the National Farmers' Union told The Sun today: “Any future domestic agricultural policy must be comprehensive, providing support to farmers to improve productivity and resilience among farming businesses, to help manage risk and volatility and for environmental work.
"It needs to be properly resourced, maintaining current levels of public investment in UK agriculture so that the industry remains competitive. And it needs to be planned, with a sufficient implementation period to allow farmers to adjust to a new system, ensuring certainty and stability for farm businesses.”