UK Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, is facing demands for answers after the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs Committee called for him to appear before them at an earlier date than currently scheduled to account for the short changing of Scotland’s farmers in EU funding.
A spokesperson for the SNP says: ‘The UK Government has announced that EU agriculture funding worth up to around €230 million – which only accrues to the UK because of the nature of farming in Scotland – will not be passed on to farmers in Scotland, despite cross-party agreement in Holyrood that it should be.
‘The decision will leave farmers in Scotland with the lowest level of CAP direct payments in the whole of the EU. If Scotland was independent, we would be benefiting from an EU rule that ensures all member states attain an average payment that is well in excess of what farmers in Scotland will receive as part of the UK.’