Newspaper column 6 February 2020 - Brexit, farming and fishing

As of 11pm last Friday evening we have officially left the European Union.

This fulfilled the result of the 2016 referendum on our membership of the EU, where the country and Cornwall voted to leave. During the recent election campaign, the majority of people I spoke with in our Truro and Falmouth constituency were democrats who respected this democratic decision and just wanted us to get on with it. Now we have, and have left the EU, we can move forward. We can negotiate with our friends in the EU on our future relationship from the position of having already left, and we can also forge new bonds with international trading partners free from Brussels.

As well as our future trading agreements, this week we are going through the Agriculture and Fisheries Bills in Parliament, two landmark bills which put the regulation of our farming and fishing communities back in the hands of the UK.

The Agriculture Bill will provide a boost to the industry after years of inefficient and overly bureaucratic policy dictated to farmers by the EU.

It sets out how farmers and land managers in England will in the future be rewarded with public money for “public goods” – such as better air and water quality, higher animal welfare standards, improved access to the countryside or measures to reduce flooding. This will contribute to the government’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, while at the same time, helping to boost farmers’ productivity.

This will replace the current subsidy system of Direct Payments which pays farmers for the total amount of land farmed, skewing payments towards the largest landowners rather than those farmers delivering specific public benefits.

Instead, the new measures will provide a better future for agriculture in this country, maximising the potential of the land for food production and for delivering public goods.

With the Agriculture Bill, I see a future where farmers are properly supported to farm more innovatively and protect the environment. The reforms set out in the Bill are supported by the manifesto commitment I stood under, to maintain overall annual funding for farm support at current levels for the duration of this Parliament. I am clear that this funding, if properly managed within the UK, will not only maintain the current levels but will also be easier to access and more effective for our farmers.

The Fisheries Bill delivers a legal guarantee the UK will leave the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) at the end of the Transition Period, in December 2020 - allowing the UK to control who may fish in our waters, and on what terms, for the first time since 1973.

The Bill ends current automatic rights for EU vessels to fish in British waters. In future, access to fish in UK waters will be a matter for the UK to negotiate and we will decide on the rules that foreign vessels must follow.

As well as powers to implement new deals negotiated with the EU and other coastal states, set quotas, fishing opportunities and days at sea, the Bill includes new measures for Devolved Governments and a single set of UK-wide fisheries objectives to ensure that fish stocks, and the marine environment, are better protected.

I met with representatives from both our farming and fishing communities in Parliament last week to discuss how I can best support their industries as these Bills go through Parliament, and am determined that they will be able to head into the post-Brexit future better managed and with better prospects than has been the case in the past.

Finally, I am in the process of recruiting my team to support me in my work as MP for Truro and Falmouth. I have already recruited some excellent people but do still have a vacancy for an office junior position at my constituency office. If you are interested and want to find out more, please email my office manager at jordan@cherilynmackrory.org.uk for more information.