Government must help farmers facing a changing climate
4 min read
I am privileged to be the first Labour MP for Hexham: a constituency stretching from County Durham to the Scottish border, and from Cumbria in the west to the edge of Newcastle.
Farming is woven into the landscape and life of our constituency. Farmers produce our food, shape our countryside and sustain the jobs, businesses and communities that make Northumberland what it is.
But farming has become harder and less certain. Fourteen years of Conservative government left farmers contending with a botched Brexit deal, damaging trade agreements and the withdrawal of European support without a reliable replacement.
It is no secret that Keir Starmer’s changes to Agricultural Property Relief and the sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive further undermined confidence. We must acknowledge that trust has been damaged. But Andy Burnham’s government now has an opportunity to reset that relationship: listening to farmers, providing greater certainty and treating them as essential partners in delivering our economic, environmental and food-security ambitions.
The urgency of that task has been underlined by the extreme weather of recent months. Across Northumberland, weeks of searing heat and little rain have left fields scorched, grass struggling to grow and soils cracked. Crops have been put under severe stress, while livestock farmers have faced dwindling grazing and the prospect of using winter feed months earlier than planned.
For farmers, drought means smaller harvests, higher feed bills and difficult decisions about livestock. It can wipe out months of work and investment, with the effects continuing long after rain returns.
That reality makes the Conservatives’ retreat from climate action all the more indefensible. Kemi Badenoch now acknowledges that climate change is making farmers’ lives harder, while attacking the policies designed to limit its impact. The Conservatives cannot pose as champions of British farming while abandoning the action needed to protect its future.
And what happens on our farms does not stay there. When harvests fail, or businesses become unviable, the consequences travel along the supply chain, through rural employers and onto supermarket shelves and household budgets.
War, volatile energy prices and extreme weather are already disrupting food production and trade. Greater reliance on fragile international supply chains leaves Britain more exposed to every new shock. And once those shocks drive up food prices, they rarely return to where they started. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit describes this as the “rockets and feathers” effect: prices rise rapidly during a crisis but fall only slowly and partially afterwards.
Building resilience into British farming is therefore not simply a countryside concern. It is part of protecting every family from a permanently more expensive weekly shop.
It is also vital to rural prosperity. When farmers receive a fair return, that money circulates through nearby towns and villages, supporting vets, machinery dealers, food processors, shops and pubs. A successful farm sustains far more than the people working within its boundaries.
The public wants to buy British food, but our farmers are too often undercut by imports produced to standards that would not be accepted here. Government should uphold high standards in trade agreements, improve transparency over where food comes from and use its purchasing power to put more British produce into schools and hospitals.
Backing farming is also essential to our environmental ambitions. Healthy soils retain water during drought and absorb it when heavy rain arrives. Trees, hedgerows and restored habitats can shelter livestock, support pollinators and reduce flooding. With the right support, farmers can help protect the country from the climate extremes they are already experiencing.
I therefore welcome the additional support announced during Burnham’s recent visit to Cornwall. It suggests a government prepared to listen, but it must develop into a dependable, long-term settlement. Farmers need support to manage water, improve soil health and withstand increasingly frequent extremes. Environmental schemes must provide certainty and properly reward them for producing food while restoring nature.
As Chair of the Rural PLP, I look forward to working with the PM to ensure farmers and rural communities are heard at the heart of government.
Joe Morris is the Labour MP for Hexham
