A farmer has unleashed a furious rant on GB News, accusing a Labour Minister of "lying" about agricultural policies during a recent interview with the People's Channel's Political Correspondent Katherine Forster.
Colin Rayner, who has worked the land for nearly five decades, confronted Environment Secretary Steve Reed's assertions about increased farming budgets.
Earlier today, Reed maintained that his administration had allocated the largest sustainable farming budget in British history, insisting more funds were reaching more agricultural businesses than under any previous administration.
The farmer hit back: "I just find it incredible that you can stand there and lie to the media. I’ve been farming since 1976. That’s the biggest lie we’ve ever been told. The Government is paying some farmers to plant wildflowers instead of growing food. That’s insane.
GB NEWS
|The farmer was left furious by the comments
"My three daughters have had to leave the business because it’s no longer profitable. That’s the next generation gone. They should be on the farm now, learning the trade.
"I’m 67. I just hope I don’t have an accident in the next year just to avoid the inheritance tax from this Government. Why does it hate farmers so much? We produce the best food in the world here. They should be supporting us.
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"The money they’ve erased from inheritance tax, £740million, has been given to African farmers to plant trees. He’s mad as a hatter, I’m sorry. It’s just insane what this Government is telling us."
He added: "We don’t help any UK citizens. We seem to help everybody else in the world first.
"I don’t mind helping other farmers, educating them, and letting them come to this country to learn how to farm. But we need to look after food production here. We produce our own milk; we produce our own beef and sheep.
"And now we have a Government that wants us to eat less meat to save the planet. Avocados don’t save the planet. I can’t understand this Government."
Earlier, GB News Political Correspondent Katherine Forster grilled Reed asking: "The Welsh NFU boss has written to the Prime Minister, talking about farmers tormented with continual worry. Labour pledged not to raise inheritance tax but actually came in and did the opposite.
"Elderly farmers in particular, who can’t change things or sign their assets away, are absolutely beside themselves. Can you give them some hope that you might make some changes? I mean, this Government has done lots of U-turns is there any hope of another one?"
Reed responded stating: "This Government has set the biggest budget in history for sustainable farming. It’s a comfort to farmers to know that there is now more money in the hands of more farmers under the sustainable farming schemes than at any point under the previous Government.
"This Government is supporting farmers with more investments, and we’re working with farmers to make their farm businesses more profitable because unprofitable businesses can’t attract investment, they can’t attract young people to come into the sector, and they don’t have a future.
GB NEWS
|Reed maintained that his administration had allocated the largest sustainable farming budget in British history
"I want to see farming have a bright future. We need to make it more profitable, and the Government is investing more money into farming than at any point under the previous Government."
He added: "The budget has been set because the Government had some very difficult choices to make due to the black hole in public finances.
"But people will see that we’ve been able to offer 4 million more appointments in the National Health Service, which has led to a dramatic cut in waiting lists because we got that money invested into the NHS.
"Now, farmers are interested too in having a health service where they can get to see a doctor when they feel ill. So farmers will benefit from that. But as I say, they’re also benefiting from the biggest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history."