MP meets farmers so he can tell Commons: 'This is the situation, this is what people want'

The MP for Richmond hopes the debate will take place in the next few weeks and last week, to get farmers' views, he attended a Rejuvenate meeting in Hawes.

"I want to say, 'This is the situation; this is what people want'," he said. "That this is realistic; they are not asking the world."

Mr Hague wants the debate to set out clearly what needs to be done to achieve a viable rural economy.

He said the foot-and-mouth crisis could have been shortened had the report on the 1967 outbreak been implemented.

"We have to make certain that it does not come back, but I do not think we have put in place the defences we need to have against diseases," said Mr Hague.

He agreed with farmers at the meeting that much tighter import controls were essential.

David Greenwood told of two friends visiting America who had to fill in detailed forms before entering and who were disinfected at the airport because of their agricultural connections.

"The grilling they got was unbelievable but when they returned to this country they just walked back in," said Mr Greenwood, who farms near Downholme.

"A lot of politicians talk about the need for bio-security on farms but it is entry into the country which now needs targeting. Will you please hammer home that point."

Mr Hague said he had made that point and would continue to do so.

He also believed imports must meet the same welfare and production standards British farmers had to meet. "It would be much fairer on our farmers and would minimise the risk of disease coming in," said the former Conservative leader.

"The main lesson for the future is that we must not catch it (foot-and-mouth) again; we cannot go through the whole miserable process again. When I make my next speech in Parliament I will continue to make that very important point."

Mr Hague spoke of a ten-point plan for rural recovery which included food imports matching British standards; incentives to encourage small abattoirs and a cut in regulations to make it easier for small butchers.

There was also the need to claim the next round of agri-money when it became available from Europe, and a campaign to promote domestic tourism.

He won loud support with his call for a permanent £1,000 cut in rates for every rural business.

The total bill would not be particularly large and could be met by taking the money out of that given to the rural development agencies," said Mr Hague. "The best solution when money does not get to people is to give it straight to them and not to someone else to give to them."

He believed rural areas would increase their chance of getting money from government if they showed they were doing what they could to help themselves.

Pulling themselves up by their boot straps would show they deserved help.

He cited the Wenselydale Creamery as one of the best examples. "It has given a brand name which is known across the world," he said. "It is an internationally important brand name and we have to build on that."

Phillip Holden, who chaired the meeting, said farmers would have to co-operate more to survive and he also touched on the difficulty of gaining access to the help the government had offered.

"I have tried to get a rates reduction for my three sets of premises and the total offered amounted to £160 for the year," he said.

William Lambert, whose farm was the first in Wensleydale to fall victim to foot-and-mouth and who has just re-stocked, spoke of his concern about imports.

Mr Hague repeated that he had campaigned on the issue for 12 years, particularly with regard to welfare standards, and would continue to do so.

Alistair Davy of Swaledale said his own farm had lost about £7,500 under the new hill farm allowance scheme, with money going into the English rural development plan.

However he either could not gain, or it was too difficult to gain, access to that scheme. "We need a new, multi-choice agri- scheme which every farmer could take part in," he said.

Several farmers spoke of the urgent need to lift the 21-day livestock standstill order, which Mr Hague again promised to take up. He said it was particularly onerous and damaging in hill livestock areas.

Kate Empsall suggested footpaths should be diverted round farm yards as a biosecurity measure. She believed many walkers did not like walking through farmyards anyway.

Mr Hague said he would be amenable to the idea, provided the path was moved and not removed. The Ramblers' Association would also have to be on board.

He warned, however, that footpaths were a "religion" to some people and one farmer warned that it had cost him £2,000 to have a path diverted on his own land.

The question of sheep meat production was also raised, one producer saying Europe was in deficit in sheep meat yet the government spoke only of overproduction in this country.

"Why should we not be able to produce it and export it?" he said. "After foot-and-mouth they should be making it easier for us to export it, maybe not as live export, but as carcases."

Maurice Hall of Hawes auction mart believed the over-production of sheep meat was about equal to that imported from New Zealand.

He, too, stressed the need to lift the 21- day movement restrictions. Ideally he would like to see them lifted before May so that ewes with lambs at foot could be moved.

Rejuvenate next meets in The Pantry at Hawes on February 21 at 8pm. The speaker is Mr Robert Forster, chairman of the National Beef Association