A COUNTY Durham MP has warned ministers that hill farmers face being put out of business if the UK Government allows a “flood of cheap New Zealand lamb” post-Brexit.

Helen Goodman, Labour MP for Bishop Auckland, pressed Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom to guarantee long-term funding for hill farmers.

The Government has previously pledged to plug the post-Brexit funding gap for key EU-backed projects. This includes matching Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pillar one funding for farmers until 2020 while a domestic system is put in place.

Speaking in the Commons, Ms Goodman told Ms Leadsom: “Paying for environmental goods is only to work as a strategy if the hill farms are financially viable, and you know some of them are earning £14,000 a year, so income support mechanisms will still be necessary.

“Can you guarantee in future trade negotiations you’re not going to allow a flood of cheap New Zealand lamb, which will put them out of business?”

Ms Leadsom replied: “You will be aware that we have undertaken from the very first days in the job to commit to the levels of current support for all pillar one payments until 2020 to give that continuity to farmers and businesses.

“We have committed to our consultation on the future for the food and farming sector in our 25-year plan and that will be looking very closely at the level of support that’s needed.

“But I absolutely agree with you - we will need to look at what we can do for the future to ensure that hill farmers remain viable and sustainable.”

Fears have been raised about the impact of leaving the single market on the UK’s sheep sector in the wake of the Prime Minister’s speech this week setting out the Government’s approach to Brexit negotiations.

Forty per cent of UK lamb is exported to the EU each year, with 96 per cent of that going into the single market.

The National Sheep Association said tariffs placed on sheep meat exports into the EU would dramatically reduce the industry’s competitiveness and the volumes sold there.

Speaking during the same Commons session today, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, questioned Ms Leadsom about farmers who have been waiting more than a year to receive support payments.

Mr Farron asked if Ms Leadsom or Rural Payments Agency chief executive Mark Grimshaw would tolerate waiting more than 13 months for their salary cheque to arrive. He said: “That is what 50 hill farmers have had to do, waiting for their December 2015 single farm payments, and hundreds more waited up to a year to get their payments also.”

Ms Leadsom said Mr Farron was not “apprised of the facts”, adding: “Everybody has received a payment, apart from a very small number.”